Understanding Call Numbers
How to Read the Call Numbers
Once you have a call number, and you know which kind of call number you are dealing with, what do you do with it?
You use that call number to figure out where the item is and to actually find it on the shelf. To do that, it is necessary to read those call numbers in correct order.
Let's put the following Dewey Decimal call numbers in order:
| 823 D653e |
798.24 M1265a |
823 B189e |
821 L196 |
798.2 H985t |
823 D553d |
824 G987 |
Begin by comparing the entire number on the first line and put them in order from smallest to largest. So...
The "700" call numbers come before the "800" call numbers.
Then 798.2 is before 798.24, 821 is before the 823s and 824 is last.
| 798.2 H985t |
798.24 M1265a |
821 L196 |
823 D653e |
823 B189e |
823 D553d |
824 G987 |
The second line of the call number is considered a decimal so is compared letter by letter, digit by digit. So...
Of those 823 call numbers, the B comes before the Ds.
| 798.2 H985t |
798.24 M1265a |
821 L196 |
823 B189e |
823 D653e |
823 D553d |
824 G987 |
Of the remaining two call numbers, first line 823, second line beginning with D, compare the next digit. 5 comes before 6.
| 798.2 H985t |
798.24 M1265a |
821 L196 |
823 B189e |
823 D553d |
823 D653e |
824 G987 |
