Rules and Guidelines For Call Number Ordering in the Stacks

Rule 1:    Ordering is based on the guideline - nothing before something:

973 C375

before

973 C375a

Rule 2:    A. File one decimal place at a time:

778.53092 L558r

before

778.54 C38

               B. File one numerical place at a time after each capital letter:

973 C375a

before

973 C38

               and...

846R532 Og1962

before

846R56 Oc

               C. Consider numbers as a break (i.e. 'a' & 'a2' less than 'ar'):

973 C73a

before

973 C73a2

before

973 C73ar

before

973 C73ar2

before

973 C735

Rule 3:   A. File groups of letters together when they precede numbers:

328.01 H96e

before

328.01 He26k

before

328.01 Hi12k

               B. In the case of letter groupings for serials, the same rule applies:

051 YO v.16

before

051 YO2h

before

051 YOC v.1

Rule 4:    Lower case letters precede capital letters when in the same column or place when it is the work mark:

915 Wh46wy

before

915 Wh46Ww

before

915 Wh46Wz

before

915 Wh46X

Rule 5:    Different editions of the same work are shelved in the increasing order of their dates:

973 C37a

before

973 C37a 1950

before

973 C37a 1955

Rule 6:   Materials in the original language will precede any translations. Translations may be noted by either a colon preceding a capital letter, or a capital immediately following a work mark. Examples:

220.52 B47:F

before

220.52 B47hSP

before

220.52 B47J

               and...

815 Q89

before

815 Q89:R

before

815 Q89:SP

before

815 Q89s

Shelving Order - How to Place Books on the Shelves

When either looking for or reshelving books, remember the rule, "left to right - top to bottom." That means you start at the left on the top shelf and move to the right until the shelf ends. Then, you go to the next shelf beneath that and do the same. When you get to the end of the bottom shelf, move up to the top shelf of the next section, and continue....

Work Mark

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