Answered By: Emily Metcalf
Last Updated: Jul 24, 2019     Views: 238

Books are organized by the Library of Congress Classification System

The Bell library organizes the Main, Juv, OV, and Ref collections using the Library of Congress Classification System (LC).  “Libraries use classification systems to organize the books on the shelves. A classification system uses letters and/or numbers (call numbers) to arrange the books so that books on the same topic are together. This arrangement results in "serendipitous browsing:" you find one book in the catalog, go to the shelf, and, an even better book is sitting right next to it.

The first two lines of a call number designate the subject of a book

The third line of a call number represents the Authors name

The last line of the call number represents the date of publication.

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