Finding Your Way Around the Library
Unfortunately, to the uninitiated, library call numbers are often a confusing, meaningless jumble. When a library user wants the book “The Selected Poems of Robert Frost”, for instance, he is presented with the call number PS3511 .R94 A6 1989. Say what? Doesn’t this contradict the “logical” and “easy and efficient” parts of the above statement? So it would seem at first glance. Don’t despair, though. There is method in the madness.
The call number mentioned above is part of the Library of Congress Classification System, familiarly known to librarians as the LCCS or LC System. While many public libraries and some school libraries still use the Dewey Decimal System, most larger public libraries and the overwhelming majority of academic libraries use the LC System. For larger collections
and the specialized collections found in most colleges, the Dewey Decimal System is inadequate. The LC System allows a better segregation of subjects and a more detailed breakdown of specialized topics.
Let’s delve into the mysteries of the LC System and, hopefully, dispel some of the confusion.
The first thing to realize is that the call number presented to you in the library’s catalog is not in the same format as it is on the actual book. In the catalog, you will see:
PS3511.R94 A6 1989
On the book’s spine, though, the call number is arranged like this:
PS
3511
.R94
A6
1989
The vertical arrangement reveals a lot about the logic behind this call number and makes it much easier to interpret. By taking it one line at a time, we can quickly narrow our search to a specific volume on the shelves.
The first line of this call number is “PS”. LC call numbers always begin with one to three letters, from “A” to “ZZZ”. These letters represent the general subject area that the book falls into. In this case, “P” represents the “Literature” section. “PS” is the alphabetic code for “American Literature”.
Now we’re getting somewhere. Simple logic would seem to say that the books would be arranged alphabetically on the shelves according to these letters. In this case, simple logic actually works! The top-level arrangement of the books on the shelves is from “A” to “ZZZ”. Following the alphabet gets us to the “PS” section.
Uh-oh. Look how much American Literature there is! Hawthorne. Melville. Stephen King. Mary Higgins Clark. Danielle Steel. On and on and on, shelf after shelf, range after range, maybe even aisle and aisles! Now is the time to remember that famous dictum: “Don’t panic”.
Simply look down to the second line of the call number. It’s a number, in this case 3511. LC call numbers always have a number following the letters. The numbers are a way of breaking down the large categories into smaller pieces. 3511 falls into the range of numbers for American literature from 1900 to 1960. Now look at the shelves, paying attention to the second lines of the call numbers. Aha! They’re in numerical order. Simply follow the numbers until you get to 3511.
Hmm. That helped some. We’re now down to only three or four ranges of shelves of books having call numbers that start with PS3511. Let’s look at the third line. It says “.R94”. This is where things get interesting.
This odd-looking creature is a Cutter number. Charles A. Cutter thought this stuff up. To make a Cutter number, librarians use a table to encode the author, title, or some other aspect of the book so they can keep the books in order. The arcane art of determining a book’s Cutter number is way beyond the scope of this article, though. We’re more concerned with how to use it to find this book.
Let’s ignore the decimal point temporarily and just look at the rest of this line. Again, we have a letter followed by a number. Again, logic tells us to follow the alphabet, and logic is correct. Then, we follow the numbers and…Wait a minute! These numbers are all out of order on the shelf! What gives?
What gives is that pesky decimal point at the beginning of the line. The reason it’s there is that these number are arranged as decimal numbers. In our case, the number we are actually looking for is “0.94”. Don’t worry. This part is confusing. Even some library workers have a hard time getting this. Just bear with me, and I’ll try to explain.
Decimal numbers are arranged a little differently than regular integer numbers. You read decimal numbers one digit at a time from left to right. This means that 9 comes before 94, which come before 941 which comes before 95. Yeah, it takes some getting used to, but it does make sense. Trust me, it really does.
Okay, that horse is dead; let’s not beat it any more. We’re almost through.
The fourth line looks very much like the third line. In fact, it is almost identical. That’s because this line is another Cutter number, just without the decimal point. Is there no end to the torture? Not to worry.
Not all books have this line in the call number. This particular book does because the “.R94” Cutter number identifies all the books by or about Robert Frost. That obviously covers a lot of books, so we have to have a second Cutter number to arrange these books by author. You read the second Cutter number, if it is there, just like the first one: alphabetically by the letter, then in order by the decimal number.
The last line in the call number (YAY!) is simply the publication date of the particular book. It is there so you can tell at a glance if that particular book is new enough (or, sometimes, old enough) to be useful to you. In this case, since this book is a collection of poems, it really doesn’t matter much.
So that’s it. Now you can read a Library of Congress call number. Sure you can! Just to be sure, though, let’s recap:
First line: Letters. Books arranged alphabetically by this line.
Second line: Number. Books arranged numerically within a letter group.
Third line: Cutter number, a decimal point, a letter, and a number. Books arranged alphabetically by letter, then by the number as a DECIMAL number.
Fourth line: May be a second Cutter number.
Last line: Publication date.
Now you can find your books without bothering that grumpy, overworked librarian. Have fun exploring. I hope you find a lot of interesting stuff along the way.
