What are Library of Congress Call Numbers?
Penrose Library organizes books using Library of Congress call numbers. Like Dewey Decimal numbers, Library of Congress call numbers act as a book’s address on the shelf. Call numbers are made up of a combination of letters and numbers that represent specific subjects. Library of Congress uses the letters of the alphabet to represent broad subject categories and subdivisions. For example, J represents Political Science and R represents Medicine. When you find a book you’re interested in the catalog, you’ll see a location and call number listed. Let’s look at The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. The call number listed in the catalog is RC150.4 .B37 2004 located on the 1st Floor in the General Collection. You can break this number into four separate pieces. The first piece, RC, stands for the subject subdivision Internal Medicine. Books are shelved first by this section of the call number, in alphabetical order. RC will come after R, but before RS, and
Penrose Library organizes books using Library of Congress call numbers. Like Dewey Decimal numbers, Library of Congress call numbers act as a book’s address on the shelf. Call numbers are made up of a combination of letters and numbers that represent specific subjects. Library of Congress uses the letters of the alphabet to represent broad subject categories and subdivisions. For example, J represents Political Science and R represents Medicine. When you find a book you’re interested in the catalog, you’ll see a location and call number listed. Let’s look at On Floods and Photo Ops : How Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush Exploited Catastrophes by Paul Martin Lester. The call number listed in the catalog is E903.3 .L48 2010 located on the 3rd Floor in the Book Collection. You can break this number into four separate pieces. The first piece, E, stands for the subject subdivision History of the Americas. Books are shelved first by this section of the call number, in alphabetical order. Th
