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CHAPTER 6:
CALL NUMBERS
This chapter explains call numbers and tells how to use them to locate books.
Library of Congress classification guide:
A - GENERAL WORKS
B -PHILOSOPHY. PSYCHOLOGY. RELIGION
C - AUXILIARY SCIENCES OF HISTORY
D - HISTORY (GENERAL) AND HISTORY OF EUROPE
E - HISTORY: AMERICA
F - HISTORY: AMERICA
G- GEOGRAPHY. ANTHROPOLOGY. RECREATION
H - SOCIAL SCIENCES
J - POLITICAL SCIENCE
K - LAW
L - EDUCATION
M - MUSIC AND BOOKS ON MUSIC
N - FINE ARTS
P - LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Q - SCIENCE
R - MEDICINE
S - AGRICULTURE
T - TECHNOLOGY
U - MILITARY SCIENCE
V - NAVAL SCIENCE
Z - BIBLIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY SCIENCE. INFORMATION RESOURCES (GENERAL)
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 Before
you can read a library book, you must find it. If a book collection contains
only a few hundred books and is rarely used, this task might be easy. But if the
collection includes half a million volumes and thousands of people use it, then
coded, systematic organization is essential. Otherwise no one would be able to
find a specific book except by accident or by a tedious book-by-book or
title-by-title search.
Through the centuries people have developed various coded classification systems
intended to make locating a book relatively easy. The system used in most
high schools and public libraries is called the
Dewey Decimal System. Developed over 100 years ago by Melville Dewey,
this system uses numbers and decimal points to determine where books are
shelved.
The shelving system used by Albertsons Library and by most other U.S.
college and university libraries also originated over a century ago. Since
it was developed and still is maintained by the Library of Congress, it is
called the
Library Of Congress Classification System.
The basic purpose of the system is to
make it possible to easily shelve books by subject. This approach insures that
when you locate one book on a particular subject, others on the same subject
will be close by, if the library owns any. Thus the system encourages browsing
and helps you to discover books that you might not have found any other way.
The key to this shelving system is provided by call numbers. Every book
in the library collection is assigned a unique code number—its call number. No
book has more than one call number and no two books have the same call number
unless the books are identical.
To determine the call number of a particular
book:
- Step one is for Library of Congress
catalogers to place the book in one of the major subject categories listed
above.
- Step two is to identify the subject
more precisely by adding more letters. For example, the letter
N signifies the broad category FINE ART. [Notice that the
letter is
not an abbreviation for the subject heading.] This category
contains several subheadings, each of which is symbolized by adding another
letter to
N; NA=Architecture, NB=Sculpture, and NC=Graphic Arts.
- Step three is to select
code numbers to identify the book still more precisely. At the end of
this process, a Library of Congress call number might look like this:
NA 43.
- Step four is to add what is called a
Cutter number. This combination of letters and numbers (e.g., Q47)
represents the author's name, the book's title, or some other distinctive
feature of the book's subject. Thus, for example,
NA 43 becomes NA 43 .Q47.
As a result of all of this coding, a book's call number not only uniquely
identifies the book, but places it precisely within a fairly specific and
limited subject area. Albertsons Library catalogers also usually add the
publication year of the book to the call number. If the book is part of a
multi-volume set, volume numbers also are added. The result is an
Albertsons Library call number that looks something like this:
This call number determines where the book will be shelved in the library
collection. The main library shelving area usually is referred to by librarians
as “the stacks.” Placement in the stacks works like this: books whose
call numbers begin with the same letter are shelved together; if call numbers
begin with two or more letters, they are shelved in
ascending alphabetical order from left to right, so NA is
shelved in front of
NB which is shelved in front of NC, and so on; within each
letter group, books are shelved in ascending numerical order, left to right;
so
NA 372 is shelved in front of NA 476 which is shelved in front
of NA 531.
Books with identical classification numbers are shelved
in
ascending order by Cutter number; so NA 531.6 Q47 is shelved
in front of NA 531.6 Q57.
NOTE THIS IMPORTANT FACT: Cutter Numbers are ALWAYS to be read as decimal
numbers. So when you see the Cutter number .L87,
read it as L . 87. When you are trying to locate books in
the stacks, this decimal point is very important. An example will show
why. If you read the following Cutter numbers as whole numbers they appear to be
lined up correctly:
L8
L76
L297
L1145
In fact, since they are decimal numbers, they will be shelved in
the reverse of this order:
L.1145 L.297
L.76 L.8
If you think back to your training in decimals and fractions, you’ll know that
no matter how many numbers you tack onto
.1145, it is always a lower number than .2.
The University of Pittsburg has a
quick and simple online quiz titled
SatchLCall (uses
Java)
which allows your to "shelve" books
by dragging and dropping books on a virtual shelf according to
call number order.
You are not required to take this quiz, but going through
it will clarify how call numbers are shelved.
Once you know a book's call number, it is
usually easy to locate the book. A map of the Library or the directory
near the elevators will tell you which first call number letters are on
which floors. Once you get to the proper floor, further instructions will
guide you to the appropriate section of the shelving area on that floor,
and the call number will take you right to the book...most of the time.
What can go wrong? Well, even when a book has not been checked out, it
might be on a cart waiting to be reshelved or on a table nearby. It also
may have been reshelved incorrectly.
DON'T GIVE UP! When a book is not on the shelf where you think it should
be, ask at the Circulation Desk on the first floor for help.
Click on link to go to the Assignments Page and print Assignment SIX
http://library.boisestate.edu/skills/locate/assignments.htm |