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Library Research Skills: Finding Print Books and Ebooks: Organization System

What system is used to organize books in an academic library?

You may be familiar with finding books in a public library or K-12 school library, but academic libraries at colleges and universities are organized differently.  

Public libraries and K-12 school libraries use the Dewey Decimal Classification System to organize books by topic into 10 main categories identified by numbers (000s-900s).

Academic libraries use the Library of Congress (LOC) Classification System.  Books are also organized by topic, but there are more than 10 categories, and it uses letters instead of numbers.

Library of Congress Classification A – General Works B – Philosophy, Psychology, Religion C – Archaeology, Genealogy, Biography D – History: General and Eastern Hemisphere E-F – History: Western Hemisphere G – Maps, Geography, Anthropology, Recreation H – Social Sciences J – Political Science K – Law L – Education M – Music N – Art, Architecture, Fine Arts P – Linguistics (Language & Literature) Q – Sciences R – Medicine S – Agriculture T – Technology U – Military Science, Warfare V—Naval Science Z – Books, Library Science, Bibliography