Using Call Numbers and Finding Books

1. The first line of a call number may begin with one, two, or three letters. Read these letters alphabetically. A call number that begins with A is shelved before one that begins with B, C, etc.; a call number that begins with QE is located before one that starts with QL.

2. The second lineof a call number is a number that may have one or more digits. Read this line as a whole number. The call number HD 987 would come before HD 1001.

3. The third line is the trickiest part of the call number: The letters are shelved alphabetically, and the numbers following the letters are treated as decimals, not whole numbers. The call number below may be printed as QE 352 C44 or QE 352 .C44. The decimal before the letter C is optional, but the number is always treated as a decimal. Therefore, C44 would come before C5 (just as the decimal 0.44 is less than the decimal 0.5).

4. Call numbers often have more than three lines. Sometimes there are two decimal lines as with our search example: PN1993.5.A1 B69 2012 (note that the A1 is preceded by a decimal but the B69 is not -- however, both numbers will be ordered on the shelf as decimals). Sometimes the final lines of a call number will include dates, volume or issue numbers, copy numbers, or other annotations, such as "supplement." Read these annotations after the rest of the call number. These annotations are ordered by number and then alphabetically, so that a date would appear before a copy number, which would come before a volume number, which would come before a word.

In the last section, we discussed how call numbers are ordered and what they mean. Let's look at an example using our search from the last page, Cinematic Footprint: Lights, Camera, Natural Resources by Nadia Bozak. The location information for this book is:

Third Floor, south ; PN1993.5.A1 B69 2012

Let's break down this information to find the useful parts we need:

Third Floor, south

This book is on the third floor. All of the book stacks on the second and third floors are on the south side of the building.

PN                 

The letter represents the subject area. PN represents "Literary History; collections (general)" in the Library of Congress Classification system. Other literary history books will be found nearby.

The PN section will found after P and before Q.

1993.5           

The numbers following the subject area letter refer to a specific subject. 1993 represents "Motion Pictures" and 1993.5 represents "History" within the subject area of motion pictures.

A1

The third line is called a "cutter" and corresponds to a subset of the subject area. In this case, A1 is for "General Works" within the history of motion pictures subject area.

B69           

Sometimes there are multiple cutter lines. Usually there is a line that refers to the author's last name. In this case, B is for Bozak and the number is for specific books written on this specific topic by the same author (when applicable).

2012               

The last line refers to the date the book was published (2012). Often, this line with the year is the final line of a call number.