Library of Congress Call Numbers
 

• What are call numbers?

• What does the call number mean?

• What can you find on the shelf?

• Where do you start looking?

What are call numbers?

Each book in the UWSP Library has a unique identifying number. A call number is the address of a book: it tells us where the book is located in the library.

When you see the record for a book in our online catalog, the call number is at the bottom of the page (the circled section below)

 On the book spine, the same call number is written vertically as:

GT

2850

.E53

2003

Like most university libraries, UWSP Library uses the Library of Congress (LC) Classification for call numbers.  As you can see from the above example, an LC call number is a combination of letters and numbers.  These letters and numbers have special meanings designed to arrange materials by subjects.