How to find books at McKillop Library
First, go to a computer.
Log on and open Internet Explorer.
Salve’s homepage will pop up.
Click on the library link on the top right.
When the library’s homepage loads, enter your search term in the
search box.
When your results come up, look at where the book is located.
If it’s at Salve, you can go upstairs and get it!
If it’s at another school, you can order it to be delivered.
school location
call number
The books in the library are arranged according to the Library of Congress Classification System. This system
gives a “call number” to every book. There’s a guide to using it on the other side of this sheet.
Do not worry! If you have any trouble, there are lots of librarians around. Just ask for help!
Floor Guide
Main Collection: 2nd and 3rd floor
Call numbers A-G on the 2nd floor
Call numbers H-Z on the 3rd floor
Reference: 1st floor
Browsing books: 1st floor
Curriculum Library: 2nd floor
Finding books on the shelf
You can find books in the library by looking first at the top two lines of the call number.
What floor will you go to to find your book? First check the catalog to see if the book is in the Main Collection,
Curriculum Library, Reference Section, or Browsing Books.
this tells you where in the library
you should look. In this case, it’s
the Main Collection.
More on the other side
How to use the Library of Congress Classification System
Each book in the library has a call number. The call number shows up in the library’s online catalog (which is a
database of every book the library has) and on the spine of the book.
You can think of the call number like the book’s address. Once you get used to it, it’s like a map to the book.
When you go up to look for a book, start with the first letters in the call number. This will get you to the book’s
general vicinity. To get closer to your book, move down to the numbers on the next line. If you don’t see your
book right away, go down to the letter and decimal line, and so on.
Reading Call Numbers
Read the first line in alphabetical order -A, B, C, all the way up to P, then PA, PB, PC, etc.
Read the second line like a whole number -1, 2, 3, 4 all the way to 45, 46, 44 all the way to 1001, 1002, etc.
The third line is a combination of letters and numbers.
You read it alphabetically, then a numerically like a decimal.
With .U789, after you take account of the “U”, you can just read the
.789. Thus, if you had a book with the third line .U7654, it would
come before .U789.
The picture below shows how you’d look for books on the shelves.
3414 before 3492
PR
3492
.T95
G563
1963
PS
3401
.R5987
P3
1989
PR before PS
PS
3414
.B65
2003
PS
3492
.T95
G563
1963
.338 before .45
PS
3501
.B65
2008
PS
3501
.D2
2007
PS
3513
.D338
1991
PS
3513
.D45
1985
B before D
PS
3515
.U789
Z464
2000
PS
3515
.U789
Z464
2002
2000 before 2002
What does the call number mean?
The first letters and numbers are for
PS
the subject
3515
.U789 The decimal represents the author’s
last name
Z464
The last number is the publication date.
2002
Why is this important? In the Library of Congress
system, books with the same subject are shelved
together. This means when you’re looking for books on
a topic, you find a lot of them together on the shelf.
Thanks to University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee for their call number explanation at http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/courses/searchpath/mod7/callnumberexplanation.html