Jim looked at the location information for the book. " I know where the third floor is, but how will I find the right shelf where this book is? There are hundreds of shelves up there? I wish I could use the GPS app on my phone to find this."
The item Jim wants to find has a call number of PR1585 .B38 1987
The call number in the location information of a record acts as the GPS to help you find the item you want. Each item in the catalog has a call number to tell users where the item is in the library (Except in the case of electronic resources. Then there is a link to click on in the location information which takes your directly to the resource) The call numbers in this library follow the Library of Congress Classification System
So how do you decipher these coordinates? The Library of Congress Classification Outline give you an idea of where items are by shelving all the items on a certain subject together under their class number.
Let's color-code Jim's call number to make it easier to read.
PR1585.B38 1987
Classes are arranged alphabetically - First we look for the Class. Class Letters are written on the ends of each shelf. We find the shelf labeled PR We have found the first part of the class. Now we walk down the the row until we find PR. We have found the complete class of the item.
Subject Numbers follow the class.- Now we look for the subject number. These will be ordered in A-Z too. We scan the items until we find B38
Cutter Number -. Then we look at the Cutter number. We scan all the items labeled B38 until we find the one with the Cutter number 1987.
There can be more numbers in a call number, for instance edition of a work (usually a year) or the copy of the work if the library has more then one copy of an item. Most call numbers show the class, subject and Cutter number.
So let's read the GPS map of the call number for Jim's book
Ta-Dah! If it is not checked out or lost, we have found Jim's book. A word about decimal numbers: Any number behind a period is a decimal number. So an item labeled PR1585 .B3723 1987 will come before PR1585 .B38 1987.
