What do those little numbers on the side of our library books mean? What's a call number? Why do we use them? Check out this powerpoint on Library of Congress Call numbers to find out.
1. Call Numbers (or those numbers on the spine of every library book that seem like they mean absolutely nothing actually mean something.) PR6068 .O9 H374 1999 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets By JK Rowling
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4. Every Subject Known to Man Librarians like to classify things. We think classification makes things easier, which may or may not be your opinion. That’s too bad. We’re in charge. So, there are many many many many subjects and many many many many call numbers. Luckily, anyone who uses the Library of Congress (LC) cataloging system can find pretty much the same book in any other library that use LC cataloging using the same call number. The next page has a snippet of the broadest A-Z subject headings
5. A -- GENERAL WORKS B -- PHILOSOPHY. PSYCHOLOGY. RELIGION C -- AUXILIARY SCIENCES OF HISTORY D -- WORLD HISTORY AND HISTORY OF EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, ETC. E -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS F -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS G -- GEOGRAPHY. ANTHROPOLOGY. RECREATION H -- SOCIAL SCIENCES J -- POLITICAL SCIENCE K -- LAW L -- EDUCATION M -- MUSIC AND BOOKS ON MUSIC N -- FINE ARTS P -- LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Q -- SCIENCE R -- MEDICINE S -- AGRICULTURE T -- TECHNOLOGY U -- MILITARY SCIENCE V -- NAVAL SCIENCE Z -- BIBLIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY SCIENCE. INFORMATION RESOURCES (GENERAL)
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10. The big sha-bang: Like the LC classification system, Dewey has a lot of subjects and a lot of numbers. Wikipedia has a nicely formed list.