How to find the material you need

The key places to start looking for information are:

Get to know your library well. Take a library tour or ask a librarian to show you what the library has to offer. Libraries also tend to have printed information in the form of booklets or ‘flyers’ that describe the range of material and services they offer. Major libraries organise their material by using either the Dewey Decimal Classification system or the Library of Congress system.

The Dewey Decimal Classification system

The Dewey system catalogues material according to decimal ‘call numbers’ that are assigned to specific topic areas.

The 10 basic categories shown in are further divided into sub-categories that provide more specific classifications. For example, books on philosophy have ‘call numbers’ between 100 and 199. Within this range, books on Metaphysics are catalogued at 110, Psychology at 150 and Ethics at 170. The call numbers can be further specified by using decimal points and letters (usually derived from the author's surname). For example, ‘808.042 Germ’ is the call number for the first edition of this book. Since browsing the shelves in the library is still a good way to find books, it is wise to learn which call numbers your discipline is catalogued under.

The Library of Congress system

The Library of Congress (LC) catalogue system was developed by the national library of the United States, which primarily services the needs of the US Congress, hence the name. Each alphabetical category has sub-categories, using a second letter and a numeral, and, if needed, a combination of letters and numerals that occur after a decimal point. For example, the LC call number for the first edition of this book is ‘PE1478.G47’.