Locating Library Books in the Stacks

From the online catalog record: Make note of which library collection the item is shelved in.

Main Collection

E 847.2 .K67 2005

What is the Call Number?

In the Handouts part of this Module there is a list of the Library of Congress Subject Areas (the letter or letters) at the beginning of the call number) and what they mean.

Write it down!

847.2E .K67 2005This is how the label on this book will look:

Recommendation: write the call number down in the same way that it will appear on the book label

If the item you are looking for is not from the Main Collection the first line of the label will indicate which collection it is in.

REF QL462.3 .E485 2003

A-V QH108.6.C6 R37

1989 

ShakesPR 2833.A2 G617

Reference Audio-Visual

Adams Shakespeare

Go to the collection that the item is shelved in.

Ask at the Circulation Desk for films, music, or anything shelved in the New England Room

In the Handouts link of this module there is a map of the library showing where all of the collections are.

PZ4.J77Th

The stacks all have labels that indicate which call numbers are shelved there.

This book will be shelved

in this row

Work your way down the row to find the PZ 4’s

PZ4.J77ThX X X

PZ4.J77Th

The next line in the call number isn’t as straight forward. . .

. J77. . . but it makes much more sense if you mentally add a decimal point to the number.

.

The next step is to look for PZ 4 .J

PZ4.J

.H .H .H .I .J

.J58 .J584 .J6 .J6417 .J717 .J77

The tricky part:

If you didn’t remember, or didn’t know to mentally insert a decimal point in front of the next number in the call number, the position of the book on the shelf would make no sense. You might wonder why the librarians shelved 584 before 6. Five hundred and eighty four is much larger than 6.

.58 .584 .6 .6417 .717 .77

Understanding that this part of the call number is read as a decimal number makes it easier to see why this book…

…is shelved before this book .584 is less than .6

The tricky part:

PZ4.J77Th

The final line in this call number is is read alphabetically ( Fr is before Pi, which is before Th).

…and here’s the book we were looking for.