Library Services Student Assistant Guide

• A call number is like an address for a book. It tells you exactly where to go to find the book, or where the book should be returned to. The call number is made up of letters, whole numbers, decimals, a publication date, and occasionally a volume and/or copy number. This allows for each book to have a specific location. One book’s location cannot be confused with another book's location.
• For example: A library patron may wish to find William J. Reese’s book America’s Public Schools. To find this book, the patron must go to the library's website and search for the book using our catalog. After the patron completes the search, they will find this call number:

LA 212 .R423 2005

• The call number looks like this on the spine of the book:

LA

212

.R423

2005

• Alphanumeric Subject
  • The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system uses the beginning letters and first line of numbers to indicate the subject of the book (in this example, LA 212 represents Education > History of Education > United States)
  • The letters are ordered alphabetically
    • Example: The letter D comes before K, and so forth. Similarly, the letter L comes before LA, which comes before LB, etc.
  • The numbers immediately following the first letter(s) are read as whole numbers
    • Example: 212 comes before 761 but after 115
  • Sometimes there are decimals in the first number
    • In these cases, the whole numbers are read as before, but the numbers following the decimal point are read as decimals
      • Example: 212.16 comes before 212.5 because .16 is a smaller decimal number than .50
      • Example: 212.257836 comes before 212.3 because .257836 is a smaller decimal number than .300000
• Cutter Numbers
  • The next part of the call number (.R423 in this example) is referred to as the Cutter number
  • Cutter numbers contain letters, which are ordered alphabetically, and decimal numbers
    • Example: .R423 comes after .B76 and .R227, but before .R966 and .T381.
  • Some books have two Cutter numbers
    • They are both read as decimals even though the second Cutter number does not contain a decimal point (in order to separate the two numbers)
    • An example of such a call number is below, with the Cutter numbers in bold:

ML

420

.S77

R33

2004

• Date of Publication
  • The last number in the above example, 2004, is the date of publication
  • In addition to providing useful information, the publication date is used to shelve different editions of the same book in chronological order
    • Example: A 2004 second edition comes after the original 1978 publication, but before the 2006 third edition, and so forth
• Volume Numbers
  • Sometimes a call number will contain a volume number, labeled v.1, v.2, etc.
  • These are shelved in whole number numerical order within the set of books
• Copy Numbers
  • A call number will contain a copy number if there are multiple copies of the same book on the shelf, labeled c.1, c.2, etc.
  • These are shelved in whole number numerical order