The LRC collection is divided into two main sections. The Youth Collection houses the PreK-12 literature (fiction and nonfiction), audiobooks, videos, and graphic novels. The Professional Collection houses manipulative materials. These sections are further broken down by call number.
Youth Collection: The Youth Collection materials have starting call number designations, listed below, to denote what type of material the item is. These designations will be followed by the first five letters of the authors last name. In the case of an edited book or book with no listed author, the first five letters of the title will be used.
YE - Youth Easy (picture books)
YF - Youth Fiction (chapter books)
Y# - Nonfiction (all age ranges; call numbers are Dewey Decimal numbers)
YEC - Early Childhood (board books)
Big Book - Large Books for Story Telling
*The YE, YF, and Y# designations apply to graphic novels, audios, and videos as well.
The textbooks in the Professional Collection have unique call numbers. The call numbers will begin with the word "textbook" followed by an abbreviation of the publisher name, the content area, the grade level, and in some instances a more detailed subject description.
The manipulatives in the Professional Collection have an abbreviation of their content area as the beginning of the call number, followed by a number between 100 and 999. No two items have the same numeral designation. The subject abbreviations are listed below.
Ele. L.A. - Elementary Language Arts
Ele. S.S. - Elementary Social Studies
Math - Mathematics
Sci. - Science
Hea. - Health
Edu. - Education
E. Chi. Ed. - Early Childhood Education
Lib. Sci. - Library Science
*Ignore the words a, an, and the while shelving
*An apostrophe and any letters after must be considered. For example, "Ollie and the Wish" is shelved before "Ollie's Dream" because you must consider the 's' at the end of 'Ollie's'.
Tall books that do not fit upright on the shelves are placed spine down in the same place on the shelf they should normally occupy. This will mean that the call number is not visible, however placing the book spine down better protects the book from wear and tear.
Books that are in a series are shelved a little differently. Instead of being in strict title order, these are shelved in book order. If an author has multiple book series, shelve the books according to alphabetical series title, then by book order within each series. If we have a series and then stand alone books by that same author, shelve alphabetically by series title and stand alone book title.
For example: Rick Riordan books
***Remember to always check the shelf before and after a book that looks like it should go on the end of a section; it may need to be placed on an entirely different shelf! This is one of the most common shelving errors. For example, if you have a book with the call number YF Ronal and you see a shelf that begins with YF Rylan, it is easy to assume you should shelve YF Ronal at the beginning of this shelf. However, you need to check the shelf above and make sure that Ronal does not belong somewhere on that shelf - the shelf above may end with YF Rowel, so the book you are shelving would need to be in the middle of that shelf!***
The non-fiction materials in the LRC are cataloged and call numbered using the Dewey Decimal System. It is a good idea to have a basic knowledge of the broad Dewey classifications. Some of the most frequently used areas in the LRC are:
398.2: fables and fairy tales
500s: science topics
811: poetry
You can refer to this page for a break down of Dewey Decimal classes. This can be helpful when patrons are looking for non-fiction books on a particular subject; they can browse the corresponding Dewey section (particularly helpful if the library search is down!).
The Main Library uses the Library of Congress Classification System (LCC). It is a good idea to be somewhat familiar with this as patrons will come to our help desk for assistance in finding Main Collection materials.
Reference this page for a breakdown of LC classifications.
