How to Read a Call Number & Find Your Book on the Shelf

Have you found a book or item in our Library Catalogue, but are unsure how to find in on the shelf in the Library?
This "short cut" shows you how!

Where does your book live?
(2:00 minutes)

 

Transcript

You’ve searched the Library catalogue and found a book you’d like to read. Write down the call number and location.

Think of the call number as the book’s address in the Library. The majority of the Library’s books live on the second floor. Books with the same or similar call numbers have the same or similar subject. Not all books live at the address you might expect. For instance, books about technology live in T, while books about medicine live in R.

Once you get upstairs, there are signs telling you where to go – books that start with call number T live on the west side.

Walk down the aisles and look for the signs posted at the end of the rows. Use the call number to find the row where the book lives. Here’s the row you need,
TP 809 to TT 507.

Now, read each line of the call number to find the book. The TR books are in this row. Find 267.5 in numerical order. Here are all the 267.5 books.

Look at the next lines of the call number. There may be 1, 2, or 3 lines, arranged alphabetically and numerically. To find this book, first look for A3, and then for S567. The last number in our call number is the date the book was published, 2003. The date can tell you how current the book is.

Voila! Here is my book!

 

How to Read a Call Number

Each book in the library has a unique call number. Call numbers are like addresses; they tell you where each book "lives" on the shelf. Like most academic libraries, Red Deer College Library uses Library of Congress (LC) call numbers, which use a combination of letters and numbers to arrange materials by subject.

The Library of Congress Classification system uses alphabetical, numerical, and decimal order; call numbers are read from top to bottom:

	Start with top line, QE; items are arranged alphabetically by subject (QE is Science. Geology) Single letters precede double letters (all Q's come before all QE's)
	Then read second line, 862; items are ordered using whole numbers from 1 to 9999
	Then read third line, D53; items are ordered alphabetically Items starting with the same letter are then arranged by decimal number (D53 comes before D6)*
	1997 is the Year of publication

*A note about the third line:
The third line is arranged by decimal number -- imagine a decimal after the first number (e.g. for D53 imagine D5.3 which would come before D6.0)

The following call numbers are in correct order on the shelf:

PN 6231 E29 1992

PN 6231 E295 1987

PN 6231 E473 2004

PN 6231 E48 2003