Navigating the Library

King's Library follows the Library of Congress Classification (LOC) System, as do most academic libraries in North America.

This alphanumeric (letter/number) system assigns each book a Call Number unique to that particular title. You can think of a Call Number like a street address for a book. A Call Number for a specific title can be different from one library to the next depending on each library's collection practices, but the core principles behind the system will remain the same. 

As long as you know the Call Number your library uses for a book, you will be able to locate that book on the shelf.

If you want to know more about how different items are classified, or want to know where a topic can be found so you can browse that section, visit the Library of Congress Classification Outline.

When searching the online catalogue, the Call Number will be displayed as pictured:

On the physical item, the call number will be displayed this way:

Here's how you read it:

Thankfully you don't need to know what each letter and number represents to be able to find the book you're looking for.

For those interested, there is a comprehensive breakdown of the meaning of a Call Number below. This is much more detail than you actually need to find what you're looking for. If you're simply looking for the book you need, focus on the instructions in the grey box above.

BL

The first letter or set of letters is read alphabetically, so B would come before BA, then BC, then BD, and so on until you come to BL.
This represents the general subject - the BL section contains all books that are classified under the subject of "Religions. Mythology. Rationalism." 

820

The first set of numbers is read in numeric order, so 800, then 800.5, then 801, then 802, and so on until you reach 820.
This represents a specific topic within the general subject - in this case, 820 in the BL section refers to "Special deities and characters from classical mythology from A to Z."

DECIMAL

Although we don't put a physical decimal point after the first set of numbers, it's very important to remember that each alphanumeric set that comes after is read as if it's a decimal number.

H45

This means that H45 can be read as 0.H45.
Therefore, H110 would come first, H27 after that, H356 after that, H4 after that, until you get to H45.
In this particular instance, H45 under BL 820 represents "Helen of Troy", meaning most items that are specifically about Helen of Troy can be found in the same area.

H84

This set is read the same way as the one above.
These last two sets of letters and numbers are called Cutters. They will often represent the author and title of the book respectively, but sometimes they provide more detail about the subject or region discussed in the book, as in the case above. It's the second cutter number here that represents the author, whose last name is "Hughes."

2005

This is the year the book was published and is read numerically. This allows you to differentiate between different editions of the same book, or easily identify the chronology of an author's works on that subject even when they are shelved alphabetically by title.