Overview
What is a Call Number?
- It's like an address
- Tells you where a book (or other item) is located on the shelf
- Represents the content of the book based on a specific classification system
During Summer 2017, Daemen College switched from the Dewey Decimal Classification System to the Library of Congress Classification System.
Library of Congress in a Nutshell!
- First developed in late 19th and early 20th centuries to organize book collections in the Library of Congress
- Uses a combination of letters and numbers to group items by their subject content
- Divides all knowledge into 21 basic concepts, which are further divided into subclasses
What does this mean? It means that when looking at a book on the shelf, the books around it will be on the same or a similar topic.
Reading a Call Number
Note: Call numbers are read line by line, top to bottom.