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A unique call number identifies each book in the Library. For most books, they're located near the bottom of the book's spine. When you find one book on a topic you're looking for, the other books shelved nearby will have similar call numbers and will be on similar subjects. This makes browsing the shelves an effective way to find books that will meet your needs. To browse library bookshelves to survey available books pertinent to your book of interest, find the relevant call number, either by looking in the catalog for a book on your topic or consulting one of the charts in this guide. You can ask a staff members for the location of a call number within the library. |
| BS |
First letters: The first letter of a Library of Congress call number indicates the general class the call number falls within. In our example, the book is located under B, which is where books on philosophy are classed. If there is a second or third letter, these indicate a specific subclass. BS indicates books on the Bible. Stand-alone letters will come before any pairs, for example, N comes before NA. |
| 195 | Numbers that follow the letters: The numbers define the subject of the book. |
| .N394 |
Cutter Number (the next set of numbers): These numbers further specify a book's identity and subsequent shelf location by applying unique information about that book (such as author last name, book title, geographic location or some other facet of the content) to a table that generates a kind of alphanumeric code. Cutter numbers contain letters, which are read alphabetically, and decimal numbers, which are read as decimals. So, for example, .N3234 comes after .N76 but before .N381. |
| 2009 | Year number: The edition of a volume is the next part of the call number. The year of publication follows the Cutter number to indicate the edition. In our example, 2009 indicates that this edition was published in 2009 |
The library catalog (Primo) includes a feature called "Virtual Browse." It allows you to see the other books in the Bechtold Library that have been assigned call numbers near the book you're viewing. This is another way to discover similar titles without doing separate searches in the catalog.
To use Virtual Browse, click the title of any book you find in the catalog. This will open the detailed catalog record for the book.
Scroll toward the bottom of the screen and look for the section that looks like the image below.
To see an item's call number, hover your mouse over the book title. A gray box will appear with details about the title.
