LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CLASSIFICATION IN THE EFL
EFL and the Library of Congress Classification
Scheme
Since early 2009, the four faculty libraries (English, History,
Philosophy and Theology) have been changing the way they arrange
their books on the shelves in order to assist readers to find titles on
related subjects in each of these libraries more easily, by using the
same classification scheme.
The libraries‟ in-house classification schemes are being changed to
one of the major schemes in use in academic libraries in the UK and
US – the Library of Congress Classification scheme (LCC).
Resources for English Studies
Finding
efl books:
a guide to finding books using the
Library of Congress Classification
scheme
efl
The EFL began by classifying to LCC any new books purchased from
January 2009 onwards. These are now in a new LCC sequence on the
shelves immediately after the journals on the main floor of the
library. The only exception to this is Z (Bibliography) which is upstairs
in the Gallery. A broad outline of the scheme is included at the end
of this leaflet, together with examples of shelf marks.
All our books are fully searchable on SOLO (Search Oxford Libraries
Online), the online library catalogue, by title, by author and by shelf
mark, so if you know the shelf mark for a particular author or topic
you can browse a list of books on your chosen subject. At present
there are only a small proportion of books in the EFL with LCC shelf
marks, but this number will grow as we gradually reclassify the whole
collection.
For further information please see:
English Faculty Library website:
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/english/reclassification
Library of Congress classification scheme outline:
http://www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/classification/lcco/
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/english
Revised September 2011 / KW
Finding LCC books in the library
Books classified to
LCC are in a new
sequence on the
shelves immediately
after the journals on
the main floor of
the library. N.B.
This section of the
library will be shown
as „Main LCC‟ in the
library catalogue.
Finding LCC books via SOLO (Search Oxford Libraries
Online) http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Step 1: Go to http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk and sign on.
Sign on options are in the top right hand corner of the screen.
 Current members of Oxford University should sign on using
their “Oxford Single Sign-On (SSO)”
 Other Bodleian Libraries members should choose “non-Oxford
Members” and sign on using their Library card username and
password
The only exception to this is Z (Bibliography) which is upstairs in the
Gallery.
Step 2: Once you have logged in, you should now see your name
appear at the top right of the SOLO screen.
The new shelf marks look
something like this:
PR4656.A2.R49 ELI 2008
This is the LCC shelf mark for
editions of Adam Bede by
George Eliot.
Oscar Wilde
You will need to “sign on” to SOLO to view the availability of an item
in the library. Once you have completed any transaction on your
SOLO account, including searching for items when you have signed in,
you must Sign Out.
Most books in the EFL are still
classified under the library‟s inhouse scheme, e.g. copies of
Adam Bede with the shelf mark
N35.1[Ada] will be upstairs as
usual.
The easiest way to find books in the EFL on a particular author,
period or topic is to use the search box on the main front page of
SOLO. Type in your search keywords (e.g. „Eliot‟ and „Bede‟) and
limit your results to show only books held in the English Faculty
Library, then click on the large Search button.
This will generate a list of search results. If you click on the
„Locations‟ link for each individual record, you will find details of
where the item is held and its individual shelf mark.
Understanding the LCC shelfmark
Example 1:
Conrad, J. (1981) Heart of Darkness
LCC shelf mark: PR6005.04 H4 CON 1981
(N.B. Where several versions of a work are indicated, you will need to
click on the „versions‟ link to expand the results list fully to view the
record for each separate edition.)
Books in our new LCC section will have the location „English Faculty –
LCC Books‟ displayed in the record for the book.
PR = English Literature
6005 = 1900-1960-Individual authors- Surname beginning with C
.04 = Conrad
H4 = Heart of Darkness
CON = First three letters of the author‟s surname
1981= Date of publication
Example 2:
Some authors, such as Dickens, have their own unique range of class
marks because of the large body of work they have produced, and so
many of their works have their own unique number.
Dickens, Charles (2003) Bleak House. Ed. Bradbury
LCC shelf mark: PR4556.A2 B58 DIC 2003
PR = English Literature
4556= Dickens: Bleak house
.A2 = by editor
B58 = Bradbury
DIC = First three letters of the author‟s surname
2003 = Date of publication
Example 3: critical works about an author
Please note that this only relates
to books classified under the
Library of Congress scheme, older
editions of the same title will still
be in their usual place in the EFL
in-house classification scheme
and will have a location of
„English Faculty Library‟.
Lascelles, M. (1970) Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
LCC shelf mark: PR2824.L3 LAS 1970
PR = English Literature
2824= Shakespeare: Measure for Measure
.L3 = Lascelles
LAS = First three letters of the author‟s surname
1970 = Date of publication
CLASS P - LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
General overview of the classification scheme
The following tables give a general overview of the scheme relating
to Class P: Language and Literature.
Subclass P
Subclass PA
It is important to remember though that some subjects relating to
your research may be classified under different sections of the
Library of Congress scheme: e.g. Scholars and rebels by Terry
Eagleton is classified at DA, which includes Irish history.
Subclass PB
Subclass PC
Subclass PD
Subclass PE
Subclass PF
Subclass PG
Examples of sub sections in Class P:
P327
Lexicography
PE3701
Slang
PN441
Literary history
PN1995
Film aesthetics and criticism
As in the EFL in-house scheme, PR and PS are sub divided by period,
for example:
PR: English Literature / General works on the period
PR421
PR441
PR471
Elizabethan era
18th century
20th century
PS: American literature / General works
PS185-195
PS201
PS229
17th – 18th centuries
19th century
21st century
Individual authors have their own shelf marks as shown on the
previous page.
Subclass PH
Subclass PJ
Subclass PK
Subclass PL
Subclass PM
Subclass PN
Subclass PQ
Subclass PR
Subclass PS
Subclass PT
Philology. Linguistics
Greek language and literature. Latin
language and literature
Modern languages. Celtic languages
Romanic languages
Germanic languages. Scandinavian languages
English language
West Germanic languages
Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian
language
Uralic languages. Basque language
Oriental languages and literatures
Indo-Iranian languages and literatures
Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia,
Africa, Oceania
Hyperborean, Indian, and artificial languages
Literature (General)
French literature - Italian literature - Spanish
literature – Portuguese literature
English literature
American literature
German literature - Dutch literature Flemish literature since 1830
Afrikaans literature - Scandinavian literature
- Old Norse literature: Old Icelandic and Old
Norwegian - Modern Icelandic
literature - Faroese literature - Danish
literature - Norwegian
literature - Swedish literature