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Guides & Tutorials

Find an Item on Shelf

The Location of Collections tells which floor a collection locates. Users may then find an item of a collection on the bookshelf by its Call Number.

Items are arranged on shelves by Library of Congress (LC) Call Number that cormprises letters and numerals in 3 parts representing respectively the item's subject, author's last name, and publication year whenever applicable. For example, in QA76.S834 2007

QA76 1st part representing the subject
S834 2nd part always beginning with a letter, representing the author's last name
2007 3rd part representing the publication year

Items are shelved in alphabetical and numerical orders of the LC Call Number:

  1. alphabetically by the beginning letter(s), e.g. QA is shelved before QB if same beginning letters, numerically by the numbers after, e.g. QA76 is shelved before QA754
  2. if same 1st part, alphabetically by the author letter and then the author numerals in a decimal system.
    3. e.g. QA76.S834 is shelved before QA76.S86
  3. if same 1st and 2nd parts, by the publication date.