Welcome to the Penny Road LMC Tutorial for Finding

Books!

The KEY = The Call NumberThe Call Number = The spine label on the

book

Example: Panda Bears

by John

Larson Call

Number

Title: Panda BearsAuthor: John LarsonCall Number = Dewey classification

number First 3 letters of the

author’s last name.

599 Lar

Do all call numbers have numerals?No, some have only letters.

Examples:

E.A.S.Y. Section Fiction Section Fiction Section

Story Collection

Story Collection

Biography Biography

E Seu

F Osb

SCDis

B Lin

Why the name “call numbers”? We’re not calling anybody!

Long ago there were fewerlibraries,sometimes with smaller collections of books.

Visitors were not allowed to go into the book shelf area to pull a book offthe shelf.

Instead, a library visitor had to look in a card catalog and write down the call number to give to a library worker.

That person would go find the book in the closed book area and bring it out to the visitor.

The visitor had “called” for the book by writing down the call number for a library worker to go find the book.

In certain libraries, this is how it is done even now.

At Penny Road you write down the call number and find the book yourself.

But if you have any trouble, be sure to ask for help!

Why do we need call numbers?Answer: To sort the books.

Think of the grocery store. . .

The grocery store has the same kind of thing in one

place. For example, the milk is with the dairy foods, and carrots are with vegetables.

Wouldn’t it be silly to see carrots for sale in the dairy case!

In the library, the same kind of booksare together. For example, all the

Magic Tree House books are in theFiction Section, under Osb, the first 3 letters of the author’s last name.

All Dr. Seuss books are in the Seu partof the E.A.S.Y. Section.

The books are classified so that all of the same kind are together!

What does classified mean? How are books classified?

•Classified means librarians looked at the book and decided how to sort it—where to put it on the library shelves.

•A library book is classified by the kind of book it is, what it is about. •There are only TWO (2) main kinds of books:

Fiction and Nonfiction•Then, there are different kinds of fiction and nonfiction.

Fiction --means False, not true

F or FIC -- Regular Fiction, imagined stories, mostly words

E -- “Everyone Always Says Yes to Books” -- mostly picturesSC – Story Collection – several stories

in one book, by one author or by different authors

Nonfiction--means true, Not Fiction

B -- Biography, the true story of a person’s lifeR or REF – Books used for Reference,

in a special nonfiction area000-999 -- Nonfiction books sorted

by the Dewey Decimal System of Classification

What are the letters on the bottom line of the call number?

Remember: The last line on each spine label—call number—is usually the first three letters of the author’s last name.

FictionArranged in A-B-C order by the first three letters of the

author’s last name.

NonfictionArranged in number order. If the numbers are the same, use the first three letters of the author’s

last name.**Exception: For Biography, use

the last name of the person written about in the book.

FGif

FGrecomes before

599.73Tay

599.8Ath

comes before

599.8Ath

599.8Marcomes before

Biography• Biography is a special section in some libraries,

in the B section.• Some libraries (not Penny Road) use the Dewey number

920 for collective biography (one book about more than one person) and 921 for individual

biographies.• Either way, the bottom line is the first letters of the

famous person, NOT the author.

BWas

PBBAsh

BLin

PBBMon

Paperback Biography about Arthur Ashe

Biographyabout AbrahamLincoln

Paperback about Claude Monet

Biography about George Washington

What is the Dewey Decimal System?

In 1876 a college librarian named Melvil Dewey came

up with a way of sorting library books into ten main kinds of books.

Then, under each major kind (or class), there are ten other divisions, then ten sudivisions under each

division, and so on.

The Ten Major Classes of the Dewey Decimal System

1. 000 – 099 General Works2. 100 – 199 Philosophy3. 200 – 299 Religion4. 300 – 399 Social Science 5. 400 – 499 Languages 6. 500 – 599 Natural Science7. 600 – 699 Technical and Applied

Science8. 700 – 799 Fine Arts and Recreation9. 800 – 899 Literature10.900 – 999 History, Geography and

Biography

How do we find the call number?Use the Destiny library catalog program.

On the Catalog screen, type what kind of book you want, or the title, or the author if you know.

The call number is listed right below the title. Example: PB 599.74 StaFrom the list, click on the

title of the book.

The call number is in a box to the left of the title.

PB 599.74

Sta

What does the call number tell us?

What does the PB mean?The book is paperback; it has a soft cover that bends easily. At Penny Road, paperback books have PB above the regular call number. PB are in the same section where they would be if they were hardback, usually on the top shelf of the section or at the start of the section.

What is the 599.74?That is the Dewey number. It means this book is nonfiction. We need to look by the numbers in the last part of the 500 section.

Remember what this is?Sta is the beginning of the author’s last name for this book. Nonfiction books are shelved by the number. If the numbers on several books are exactly the same, then we use A-B-C order by the last name of the author.

Other special Letters in the Call Number

NC -- North Carolina 320.8 sectionWhi

PROF -- Professional Library372.1 Cha

PRC -- Parent Resource 320.8 CenterWhi

Just here at Penny Road!

Just here at Penny Road!

Other puzzling letters and/or numbers? Ask for help!

VTA -- Videotape808.88Rea

MAP -- Map, 917.3 laminatedNat PIC -- Picture,

598.2 laminatedBir

VF -- Vertical612 FileSch

Sections just for parents and teachers

Summary • The key is the call number.

•Some call numbers have only letters.

•Mainly, there are two kinds of books: Fiction and Nonfiction.

•Biography books are sorted by the last name of the famous person, NOT the author.

•Melvil Dewey created a classification system that is based on ten main classes, or kinds, of books.

•Use the Destiny program to find the call number for a book.

•In Penny Road Library Media Center (LMC) the paperback books are on the top shelves or at the beginning of the sections where they would

be shelved if they were hardback books.

Remember to ASK for help if you have trouble finding what you need!

Presentation © 2009 by Evelyn Chevalier