1. Locating Library Books in the Stacks

2. From the online catalog record:
Make note of which library collection the item is shelved in.
Main Collection

3. What is the Call Number?
Write it down!
E 847.2 .K67 2005
In the Handouts part of this
Module there is a list of the
Library of Congress Subject
Areas (the letter or letters) at
the beginning of the call
number) and what they mean.

4. E 847.2 .K67 2005
This is how the label on
this book will look:
Recommendation:
write the call
number down in
the same way that it
will appear on the
book label

5. If the item you are looking for is not from the Main Collection
the first line of the label will indicate which collection it is in.
Reference Audio- Adams
Visual Shakespeare
REF A-V Shakes
QL QH PR
108.6
462.3 .C6
2833
.E485 R37 .A2
2003 1989 G617

6. Go to the collection that the item is shelved in.
Ask at the Circulation Desk for films, music, or anything
shelved in the New England Room
In the Handouts link of this module there is a map of the library showing
where all of the collections are.

7. The stacks all have labels that indicate which call numbers are
shelved there.
in this row
This book will be
shelved
PZ
4
.J77
Th

8. Work your way down the row to find the PZ
4’s
PZ
4
.J77
X X X Th

9. The next line in the call number
isn’t as straight forward. . . PZ
4
. J77
.J77
Th
. . . but it makes much more sense if you
mentally add a decimal point to the number.

10. The next step is to look for PZ 4 .J
PZ
4
.J
.H .H .H .I
.J

11. The tricky part:
If you didn’t remember, or didn’t know to mentally insert a
decimal point in front of the next number in the call number,
the position of the book on the shelf would make no sense.
You might wonder why the librarians shelved 584 before 6.
Five hundred and eighty four is much larger than 6.
.J58 .J584 .J6 .J6417 .J717 .J77

12. The tricky part:
Understanding that this
part of the call number
is read as a decimal
number makes it …is shelved
easier to see why this before this book
book… .584 is less than .6
.58 .584 .6 .6417 .717 .77

13. The final line in this call number is
is read alphabetically ( Fr is before
PZ Pi, which is before Th).
4
…and here’s the book we
.J77 were looking for.
Th