library-of-congress

Library Code

The first line above the call number is simply an ownership marking to indicate that the book belongs to a specific library or a location within the IU South Bend library. The following example is a book from the THESES collection in the South Bend library. Some other examples of location codes are PER (Periodicals) or REF (Reference). Examples of other libraries include ERC (Educational Resource Commons) and B-EDUC (Bloomington's Education Library). Books in a general collection do not have this Library Code.

Class Numbers

The Class Number is a combination of letters and numbers. It's separated from the cutter number by a decimal point.  The class number to the right indicates that this periodical (library code PERIODICAL) belongs to the subject area Modern European Languages.

Class Numbers usually consist of 1 or 2 letters followed by numbers from 1-9999.  The number could contain a decimal point (not to be confused with the decimal separating class and cutter numbers).  Here are some examples in call number order :

The first unit is the Class Letter.  You first put the book in alphabetical order by this letter.  Then, after letter order, you put the books in numerical order.  For instance, once you have the Ps together, you can put them in order P, PA, PB, PC.  Then you put in order by number from P1 - P9999, PA1 - PA9999, etc.

NOTE:  There is only one class number without letters (older law books), and two areas (DKJ and KBA-KXZ) that have 3 letters.  Some parts of the K class have letters with no numbers.

Cutter Number

Class number organization is not specific enough to tell you where to put on the shelf.  Once you have books organized by class number, you must look at Cutter Numbers. 

The decimal point which comes directly before the FIRST cutter number is there to indicate that this number is always a decimal and not a whole number like Class Numbers.  Ordering cutter numbers as whole numbers rather than decimals is the most common shelving error.  The first element of a cutter number is always a letter and is followed by at least one number. 

If necessary a second Cutter Number will be added to further specify the location of the book.  We take each unit or element of the Cutter Number one at a time.  So within a particular Call Number, we then place the item in order by:

1. alphabetically by the first letter
2. numerically, in decimal order, by the number after it
3. alphabetically by the second letter
4. numerically in decimal order, by the number after the second letter.

Here are some Cutter Numbers in order:

The cutter number usually contains information about the author or it may further subdivide a category.  The first cutter number is often the first letter of the author's  last name - for instance, .S27 for Jane Smith - and the numbers specify which exact author it is - so this Jane Smith is not the same Jane Smith identified by .S28.

Edition

In many cases, the same book by the same author will be reprinted several times.  In that case, each of the editions will have the same call number but they will be specified by an edition date.  The edition date comes directly after the Cutter Number.  For older books, the date of the first edition was not printed on the Call Number, but there is still an assumed edition date.  A book without a date must be the first edition.

Here are some Edition Dates in order:

Series

Sometimes a single title will be published in several volumes (for instance, encyclopedias).  In these cases a volume number comes after the edition date to specify the order of the books within the series.  Here are some Call Numbers with Series in order: