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Waidner-Spahr Library

Books in Waidner-Spahr Library: Shelving Order: LCC

A short introduction to the Library classification system, in video and text.

Part 2: How are Books Put in Order on a Shelf?

Once you've found the location of the shelves where your book is stored, you'll have to find the right shelf, and the book amid all the other books on the shelf.

A book's call number serves as an address for its location in the library. Understanding how the system works is like understanding North, South, East, and West.

LCC is an alpha-numeric system, but it can get a little tricky, so let's take it line by line.

A call number generally has four or five lines (when displayed on the side of a book).

The first line consists of letters, which go in alphabetical order:

E
197
.N38
2009
GF
4
.E53
2001 v.1
GN
2
.F5
1959
GT
2075
.S25
2008
GV
11
.M4
1944

 


The second line consists of numbers, and should be treated as whole numbers (18 comes before 125, etc.)

ML
18
.S9
1994
ML
21
.M89483
ML
27
.U5
G474
2010
ML
28
.B196
L37
2012
ML
32
.G7
N54
2010

 


The third line consists of a single letter and numbers.

Look at alphabetical order first, and then read the numbers as decimals (not whole numbers). So, for example, on the third line ".G53" would come before ".G6" because the decimal number 0.53 is smaller than 0.6.

RS
403
.C66
1984
RS
403
.F69
1981
RS
403
.F722
1997
RS
403
.F8
1955
RS
403
.F82
2010

Video Tutorial Part 2: How are books put in order on a shelf?