Order in the House!

Imagine organising over 400,000 items under one roof! Well, that's roughly the size of the Academy Library's collection of books, journals and non-book materials. I searched the catalogue and found items which provided me with a list of call numbers, so now I just need to go to the shelves without getting lost to find some of the items.

LC Order

From what I recall from the library catalogue information skills session, the Academy Library uses the Library of Congress Classification Scheme to organise all the library items. LC (that's what the librarian called it) assigns a call number - a series of letters and numbers for items on a given subject. The call number is like an address, it tells us where the item is located within the library. Because it is subject based, all items relating to a common subject are grouped together, you will often find other relevant books near the one you are looking for.

Understanding Call Numbers

I found understanding call numbers quite difficult at first, but there was some information in the Library about catalogue records and call numbers. I thought I might include the information because if you are like me, it takes a while to work out exactly how to read the call numbers properly.

Australia's security in the 21st century/edited by J. Mohan Malik

      

Database:	Academy Library
Title:	Australia's security in the 21st century /
Primary Material:	Book
Publisher:	St Leonards, N.S.W : Allen & Unwin, 1999
Description:	xvii, 284 p.
Location:	Main Collection c 2 Temporarily Shelved at Course Reserve c.3 Temporarily Shelved at Course Reserve
Call Number:	UA 870 .A97 1999
Number of Items:	3
Status:	Available

The catalogue record indicates that there are three copies, one in the Main Collection and two in the Course Reserve Collection.

Call Number Structure

UA	The first two lines describe the broad subject of the book,
870	UA 870 = Armies: Organization, description, facilities, etc in Australia
.A97	The line above the date usually represents the author's last name or the Title if no author
1999	The year the book was published

 

Locating Books on the Shelf

Always note any location prefix - this is usually the first line of any call number (e.g. folio, ref, av). If there is no location prefix then the item can be found in the Main Collection. Usually it is best to work line by line of the call number (from the general to the specific).

1. Alphabetical order: U, UA, UG, TD, Z ....
2. Numerical order: 90, 110, 360, 870, 1050 ...
3. Alphabetical order: A, B, C, D, E ....
4. Decimal order: .4 is greater than .375; similarly, .6 is greater than .56.

So, it goes ALPHABETICAL - NUMERICAL - ALPHABETICAL then DECIMAL then YEAR

Example:
UA 870. A97 1999

There is no location prefix, so this item is in the Main Collection. You just need to find where the UA books are shelved, then UA 870s, then UA 870.A, then then UA 870.A97, etc.

Another example but with more call numbers - reading from left to right:

DS 557 .A5 D6 1989

DS 557 .A5 D75 1965

DS 557 .A5 H25 1975

JQ 4081 .E49 1988

U 21.2 .D835 1991

U 102 .D86 1990

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