Library of Congress Classification Tutorial

Take a look at the following call numbers and decide if they are in the right order. What are the differences between each call number?

 They are in the correct order. The only difference is in the subject number lines.

Now look at this next example. Are the call numbers in the right order? What is the difference between each of the call numbers?

 These are also in the correct order. The difference between the first call number and the other two is that the first one contains Z while the other two both contain ZA. The difference between the second and the third call numbers is the copy number. It is important to pay careful attention to the small details. It can be very easy to pass over an incorrectly shelved book when you do not carefully inspect the entire call number.

The following example is ordered incorrectly. How should they be ordered?

The correct order is as follows: