Student Assistants: Guide to the Collections and How to Shelve Books: 2. How to Shelve Books by Call Number

The Carl S. Swisher Library has more than 12 collections and in total more than 76,000 books.  

Most of these collections are organized using the Dewey Decimal (Dewey) Classification System.

• Many of you will be familiar with the Dewey Decimal  Classification System (because it was used in your high school and in your local public library).

●One thing you will notice in this training is that the Swisher Library, like most academic libraries that use Dewey, has more detailed call numbers than those you remember from your school or public library.

●This presentation will go over all the parts of these more detailed call numbers, so you will know how to read and shelve books in the  University's library. 

To organize the books and other physical materials so users may find these materials, each item is given a "Call Number" that includes :

• A prefix  (or absence of a prefix) indicates the book's (or other material) collection.
  • In this example, B is the prefix and indicates the book is shelved in the "Black Collection".

• The top numeric line is a number from the Dewey Decimal Classification System  ("Dewey') and helps arrange books by subject.
  • In the example above 782.421649 is the classification or Dewey number. (782 is a whole number and .421649 is a decimal number).

• The second line is called a "Cutter number" which is an alpha-numeric representation of (usually) the author- this helps sub-arranges books on the same subject by author's name.
  • In the example above T628 is the Cutter Number. (628 is a decimal)

(And yes, there is a  Mr. Dewey and a  Mr. Cutter.  Click on the links to read the Wikipedia articles about them.)

As you can see from the graphic, the call number is listed on both the catalog record and on the spine of the book, serving as its address on the shelves.

The next several slides will go over each part of a call number  in more detail.

Parts of a Call Number: the Prefix

As mentioned earlier, the Library has more than 12 collections currently.   

• For most collections, a letter prefix is added to the beginning of the call number to identify which collection each item belongs in. 
  • Two of the most popular collections are the Black Collection (B Prefix) and  Juvenile Collection (J prefix) 
  • The largest collection, however, the Main Collection, does not have a prefix. So if you see a book without a prefix, it belongs in the Main Collection.
  • For more information on the collections and the prefixes,  refer to the main menu of this training guide:
    • 1. Introduction to the Library Collection goes in-depth on the collections, including their location. 
    • 4. Prefix Chart  - list of all prefixes

Parts of A Call Number : Dewey Classification Number

The first part of the Dewey Classification Number is a whole number. In the example, it is 305.

So if there were books that started with 304 and 306, then any 305 books would go in between them.

Since the library has a large number of books, you will usually find other books that already have the same whole number on the Dewey line but the books will often have different decimals. (Decimals help subarrange books within a large subject category.

•  In this type of situation -adding imaginary zeros to the end of the decimals can be very helpful.

As another example:

Always add decimals at the end of the decimal number. Never add a zero in front of a decimal number.

Parts of a Call Number: The Cutter Number

•The next line, the Cutter Number, begins with a capital letter and the numbers after the letter are decimals. 

•It is arranged first by the letter and then by the decimal number. For example 813.65 F546 is filed before 813.65 G4321 - F before G )

• Just as you experienced with the decimals in the Dewey line, you will often find the decimals in the Cutter line have different lenghts. The same tip of using imaginary zeros when filing decimals in the Dewey classification line is also helpful when filing decimals in the Cutter line . 

Parts of a Call Number: Letters at the end of the Cutter Number

Its common to find many books with a letter (usually lower case) at the end of the Cutter Number.  Most often this is used to represent the title of the book -adding a letter at the end of the Cutter number helps keep an author's titles in alphabetical order.

Parts of a Call Number: Additional Filing Elements After the Cutter Number

Last, you will often find additional elements added to the Call Number after the Cutter  Number.

These include:

• Year of publication -file the earliest year first, assuming all other parts of the call number are identical with each other.
• Volume number - file  v.1 before v. 2
• Copy number - file c.1 before c.2

As we conclude the end of this tutorial, let's look at  the graphic above which illustrates a common situation when there is a long Dewey number and the Dewey number wraps around to the next line.

• There is only 1 Cutter number in each call number, so if you see 2 number lines above it, the 1st line just wrapped down to the 2nd line. It is 1 number.

• Remember, you can recognize a Cutter number because it begins with a capital letter with usually 3-4 decimal numbers after the letter.

Summary

Take your time in shelving. Accuracy is important. If a book is misshelved it may be hard or nearly impossible to find that book when someone wants it.  (Although regular inventory and shelf reading  activities will eventually find it.)

• To organize your cart, begin by doing a quick sort and put all your books that are in the same collection, not bothering to organize by the Dewey number. (Put all B collection books together, all main collection together, etc.)
  • (Sorting by collection first helps ensure you file the book in the correct collection and don't, for example, file a B collection book in the J collection by mistake).

• Now you are ready to go through the books on your cart by collection and put each volume in exact call number order. ​​​​​​​

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