What is a Call number?
What are the letters and numbers on the end of the books?
Answer
Each book, journal, video and other item in the library has a call number. A call number is its address in the library: it tells you where the item is located in the library.
A call number will be a series of numbers, e.g. 372.21, followed by the first three letters of the author's surname, e.g. SMI (for Smith).
A call number looks like this: '372.21 SMI'.
All items are shelved in numerical order from 001-999. The call number of each item is decided depending on the subject of that item, and that means that books on the same/similar topics are shelved together, which helps library users to find a lot of relevant material in the one place on the library shelves.
Other terms used for this number are: 'Class number', ‘Shelf number', or ‘Dewey number’.
We use the Dewey Decimal Classification System to arrange books and other library materials by subjects. To see how the Dewey Decimal Classification System works view the OCLC Multimedia Tour.
