Student Assistants

There are several classification systems in the microtext room. One is Library of Congress. Fortunately, the rules for Library of Congress apply to everything in the room except US, NC, British, and UN documents. The general "microfilm" collection is migrating to Library of Congress so that it will match the stacks.

The Library of Congress creates a system of classification that is used at most large research libraries. It's a neat system because if you find a book here with a call number "Z692 M5 M52 1985," it will have the same (or very similar) call number at any other library using Library of Congress classification.

It's also organized by subject. The letter that begins a call number tells you something about the subject. Here's what it says:

This is neat because it tells you where in our library you'll go. If you major in philosophy, you'll spend a lot of time in Wilson 1. If you're majoring in sociology you'll be on Wilson 6. Our stacks guide tells you which floor everything is on.

That's great, but where's the book on the shelf?

Once you're on the right floor, in the right area, you'll need to look by number. The number that follows the first letter are whole numbers. 1 goes before 4. 3 goes before 32 and 32 goes before 314. The following are in order:

The numbers that follow the second letter are decimals. In this case .1 goes before .5, but .314 goes before .32. The following are in order:

Sometimes there is a date or a volume number that follows the call number. In these cases, call numbers withough dates or volume information come first, then dates, then volume information.

Retrieved from "http://wiki.zsr.wfu.edu/studentassistants/index.php/Library_of_Congress_classification"

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