Locating
Call Numbers //

Once you have found a book in the catalog, you need to be able to find it on the shelf. Here's what you need to know to do so.

There are three elements to look at in the call number: location, call number, and status. Click here to see an example.

LOCATION
The location tells you which library has the item and where the item is physically located in that library: Greenfield Open Stacks, Music Lib Open Stacks, Greenfield Reference, Greenfield Special Collections, Greenfield Reserves, Greenfield Oversize, etc.

CALL NUMBER
Always write down the location and the entire call number, which will always be at least two or three lines. It also helps to write down the author and a few words of the title.

The UArts Libraries use Library of Congress call numbers, which begin with letters.

The first line of the call number contains letters.  These letters are read alphabetically:

H   HA   HD

The second line of the call number contains numbers which are read as a whole number:

The second line of the call number may contain a decimal component:

The third part consists of a single letter and then a sequence of numbers. Items are first placed in alphabetical order by letter, and then numerically according to the sequence of numbers. All the numbers in this line are treated as if they were preceded by a decimal: