Many people asked me to forward on the information that my quest for a
clear and understandable explanation of LC call numbers and shelving
order, so I am summarizing for the list. Thanks to everyone who
responded to my question. I also received a fax copy of a good
explanation from Joyce Ziegler at the Mississippi College School of Law,
Law Library.
Web Resources:
Mark E. Estes, Librarian at Holme Roberts & Owen LLC suggested
http://shelving.lib.vt.edu/text/ questions 11 - 20 of a shelving
assistant test.
while it's not an explanation, the examples - in the form of questions
clarify immensely.
Franklin A. Weston, Head of Public Services, Legal Research Center at
the University of San Diego wrote:
The WesSite for the LRC at USD has an explanation of the LC system
called:
Anatomy of the Library of Congress Call Number at:
http://www.acusd.edu/lrc
Click on the Guide Series
I actually found this on my own as well. The Barclay Law Library at the
Syracuse University College of Law http://www.law.syr.edu/library has
an excellent Library Tutorial that links to this explanation.
Mary Whisner, Head of Reference, Gallagher Law Library, University of
Washington writes:
We have been working on an explanation of LC call numbers for our
website.
It includes sample records, a summary of LC classification with emphasis
on K and KF, and a chart of foreign call numbers (including the current
classification and the home-grown classification we used before the LC
schedules were available).
It is nearly ready and will be loaded soon at
http://lib.law.washington.edu.
Software Resources:
Laurie Miller,Collection Access Services Librarian King County Law
Library
Seattle, WA 98104 and Elaine S. Pike Stacks Maintenance Supervisor at
Gallagher Law Library University of Washington both highly recommend a
program called "LC Easy". It costs about $45 (or $60) & is available
from:
Mary L. Kish
222 Forest Home Dr.
Ithica, NY 14850
(607) 257-2351
Paper Resources:
Carolyn Simpson, Library, Bricker & Eckler LLP and Karen
Skiffington-Simpson
Information Manager, Mello, Hollis, Jones & Martin both suggest A
simple solution would be to copy the outline of the KF schedule and
post it. The Outline gives number ranges for the broader topics. You
can tell at a glance that books on Intellectual property will have
numbers from 2971-3192 and Public finance 6200-6795. Also keep a ruler
or a straight edge handy to measure indentations.
The following is a draft explanation sent by June Strojny, Catalog
Librarian/Archivist
Social Law Library, 1200 Court House, Boston, MA 02108
Following is a draft of a document on which we have been working. Hope
it is useful to you. If for some reason, the formatting in this document
does not e-mail in readable manner, let me know and I can snail a copy
to you if you like.
June Strojny (for the Cateam)
How to shelve Library of Congress classified books at the Social Law
Library
The Library of Congress classification system is a deceptively logical
system for maintaining order in a collection. Despite the length of
each call number, the system is quite simple and can be taken apart
character by character in order to understand it.
The system itself is alphanumeric which, simply put, means that it
consists of an arrangement of letters and numbers.
Example 1: K KF KFM
1005 1477 2630
.N4 .S5 .P36
1993 1983 1995
Materials are shelved first by the letters, then by the first set of
numbers. Following that, they are shelved by the letter and number
combinations after the decimal.
Using the examples above, you would first look at the letters. Because
the system is alphabetical at this point, all three would come after A,
BF, DA, etc., and before LD, ML, PZ, etc.
Single letters are filed before letter combinations if they start with
the same letter.
Example 2: K KF
1234 comes before 1234
.V2 .V2
Once call numbers have been arranged alphabetically, look at the first
set of numbers. These are whole numbers, and should be put into
numerical order.
Example 3: KF
123
.V5
KF
129
.V5
These are in the correct order.
KF
1236
.V5
KF
1369
.V5
After these are in order, go to the letter/number combination after the
decimal (called a "cutter"). Put the books into order using the letter.
Example 4: KF
123
.A22
KF
123
.C22
These are in the correct order.
KF
123
.G22
KF
123
.M22
So far so good … the system is quite logical. Now here is the tricky
part. The period included in the cutter number is not a period. It is
a decimal point. The numbers after the decimal point are decimals or
fractions, they are not whole numbers.
Therefore,
Example 5: HB HB
3505 will come before 3505
.C351 .C64
because the decimal .351 is smaller than .64. Line up the decimal
numbers and match the first number of each decimal. In the previous
example, 3 comes before 6.
Example 6: KF These are in the correct order.
1236
.M3713
(37 comes before 38)
KF
1236
.M38
(3 comes before 4)
KF
1236
.M4265
(426 comes before 427)
KF
1236
.M427
(4 comes before 5)
KF
1236
.M5
Keep in mind that just because a number is longer it does not
necessarily mean it is larger.
If there is another cutter number (combination of letters and numbers
following this), treat it as you treated the combination after the
decimal.
Example 7: KF
123
.V5
A21
KF
123
.V5
A274
These are in the correct
order.
KF
123
.V5
A3
KF
123
.V5
B65
Special notes:
If there is a year following identical call numbers, put the books in
chronological order. If there are two books with the same call number,
except one has a year and one does not, the one without a year is
shelved first.
Example 8: KF
124
.A1
KF
124
.A1
1925 These are in the correct order.
KF
124
.A1
1972
Z
693
.C38
1986
Z
693
.C382
If it is a multivolume set, put the volumes into numerical order.
(Draft 7/98)
-- Stephen P. Weiter, Senior Law Librarian for Automation NY State Appellate Division Law Library 525 Hall of Justice 716.428-1074 Rochester NY 14614-2182 fax 716.428-1085 appdivsw@rrlc.rochester.lib.ny.us http://ucs.ljx.com/ad4/PLEASE STATE THE NATURE OF THE INFORMATION EMERGENCY
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