Call Numbers A call number is a mark that indicates the book's location in the libraries. It is found both on the spine of a library book and in the library catalog. Understanding call numbers is important and very helpful when we try to find a book in the library because a call number tells us where a book is placed on the shelf the same way an address tells us where a person lives. In the EMS libraries, the call numbers are printed on the spine labels. Either the 2nd or the 3rd line is the first three letters of the author’s name and books are shelved alphabetically by the authors’ names.
The books in the EMS Libraries are divided into Non-Fiction and Fiction. The MS Library uses the Dewey Decimal Classification System to organize non-fiction books into different subject areas.
000 – General Works, Computer Science and Information
100 – Philosophy and Psychology
200 – Religion
300 – Social Sciences
400 – Language
500 – Pure Science
600 – Technology
700 – Arts & Recreation
800 – Literature
900 – History & Geography
According to these categories, the non-fiction books are labeled in the following manner:
J 975 J975 stands for juvenile literature, and the number marks the subject: 900 History and Geography, more specifically 975 stands for “General History of North America Southeastern United States” Hin Hin stands for the first three letters of the author’s last name 1998 Year of publication
e.g. America the Beautiful: Louisiana by Martin Hintz published in 1998 The call number for this book is “J 975 Hin 1998”.
The ES Library uses a combination of the Dewey Decimal Classification System and Genrefication to organize the books into different subject areas. We use the Dewey Decimal System to categorize nonfiction books by their subjects, which appear in the first line of the call number. The second line of the call number tells you what particular number in the first line stands for and where a book is located in the ES library. Below are some of the examples for the Dewey classification in the ES library.
300– People
510 – Math
520 – Space
550 – Earth
580 – Plants
590 – Animals
610– Human Body
910– Geography
e.g. Are you a Snail? by Judy Allen. The call number for this nonfiction book is 590 Animals All. 590 The Dewey number marks the subject: zoology. Animals A children friendly description of the Dewey numbers. All All stands for the first three letters of the author’s last name.
The fiction books in the EMS libraries are shelved according to their genre:
Adventure
Classic
Comedy
Fantasy
Graphic Novels
Historical Fiction
Mystery
Realistic Fiction
Science Fiction
Thriller
According to these categories, the fiction books are labeled in the following manner
Com Genre Wal stands for the first three letters of the author’s last name e.g. Gangsta Granny by David Walliams The call number for this book is “Com Wal”.