Eskind Library Student Training: Call Numbers

The Classification Number

This part of the call number corresponds to the subject matter of the book.  For example, all the books that have a call number starting with W50 are about medical ethics.  Books beginning with the call number WF200 deal with the subject tuberculosis and so forth.  Thus, books are grouped on the shelves by subject.

Subscripts

Some call numbers contain subscripts on the first line.  These letters further

            specify the subject of the book.  Call numbers with subscripts follow in this order:

WY100           WY100a         WY100ab      

Decimals

Some call numbers also have decimals after the whole number.  You should regard the call numbers with decimals as whole numbers.  Thus, they would follow after both the whole numbers without the decimal and the call numbers with subscripts.  For example:

WY100           WY100a         WY100ab       WY100.5        WY100.5a

Remember, when considering the call number order of books classify that book in complete order by the first line before you look to the second line.  

Some classification numbers have geographic subdivisions.  Geographic subdivisions would be located on the second line of the call number phrase if they are present.  This part of the classification number, on the second line, always begins with double letters.  For example, a book with a second line of AA1 is from the United States and a book with the second line FA1 is from Great Britain.  A book on medical ethics from the United States would have a call number that looked like this:

W50
AA1

A book on tuberculosis from Great Britain would have a call number that started out:

WF200
FA1

Since the geographic designator is placed on a separate line, call numbers with a geographic designation have four lines rather than the usual three.

 To arrange in one classification number, some of which have geographical designators and some of which do not, group the books without geographical designators before those with geographic designators.  For instance:

Date

This part of the call number indicates when the book was published.   It could differentiate, for example, two editions of the same book.  When this is the case, the books are shelved from the oldest to the most recent.  For example:

Call Number    Author             Title, Editon, & Year

WP100
​B365s             Beacham         Synopsis of Gynecology.  8th ed., 1972.
1972                           

WP100
​B365s             Beacham          Synopsis of Gynecology.  9th ed., 1977
1977

 Cutter Number

The second part of the call number corresponds to the author of the book.  It consists of a single letter plus a number, and a lower case letter.  For example, Stimpson would be represented as S589.  The lower case letter that usually appears after the number indicates the first letter of the first word of the title of the book.  The cutter number allows books on the same topic having the same classification number to be arranged alphabetically by various authors.  The following would be the correct arrangement for these books about gynecology:

Call Number    Author                Title

WP100
B365s              Beacham           Synopsis of Gynecology

WP100
B473c             Benson              Current Ob-Gyn Diagnosis and Treatment

WP100
B473h            Benson               Handbook of Ob-Gyn

WP100
B655c             Bloom                 Clinical Gynecology

To keep authors in alphabetical order within a single classification number, sometimes it is necessary to expand the cutter number beyond the three digits normally used.  Remember that this cutter number should be regarded as a decimal, rather than a whole number, to keep the proper order.  In other words, look to each place value in the cutter number when determining order.   Here is an example:

1.         WY18
            N275              National League for Nursing.  Some Objectives.

2.         WY18             National League for Nursing, Council of Associate Degree
            N2752a           Programs.  Associate Degrees. . .

3.         WY18             National League for Nursing, Council of Baccalaureate
            N27523cc        Programs.  Challenges. . .

4.         WY18             National League for Nursing, Department of Baccalaureate
            N2753cr          and Higher Degree Programs.  Criteria. . .

Volume Number

This part of the call number distinguishes between volumes in a multi-volume set. 

For example:

WO100
P957                           Principles of Surgery.  2 volumes.
1974
v.1

WO100
P957
1974
v.2

The date may differ in the call numbers of multi-volume sets.  The books should be arranged in order by volume number, not by the date of publication.
 

Copy Number

If the library owns more than one copy of the same book, the copy number will be

indicated by "c.1" or "c.2" as the last element of the call number.    Arrange copies in numerical order.