The "ff" at the beginning…

This weekend as I was searching for another book on the 9^th floor, I searched in the oversized collection (anything above 28 inches in dimension for our library) for that floor's call number range.  I found something rather odd, a ffN shelved at the very end for the collection, which is A, B, and C’s.

So I got to thinking about why there was an oversized N on the 9^th floor with the A,B,C’s and the only think I could think of was someone got confused by the ff at the beginning of the call number, or maybe they thought that all ff’s were shelved together.

Certainly a first for me!  Usually when ff’s go missing they are usually shelved as if they were a regular sized book (imagine all of the creative placements for attempting to put an oversized book on a teeny, tiny shelf!), or since people get confused with E’s and F’s too, they find themselves with the F’s as well as in the F’s ffs (say that 10 times fast!).

If you receive a request for an ff, not only should you look in the f’s (over-folio, the big, BIG stuff over 40 inches for our library) as well as the regular sized book as if the patron disregarded the ff, but also on every other floor in their ff section.  This may sound tedious, but you never know where ff books might pop up...or miss-shelved rather.

Happy Searching!

Thesis/Dissertation Search Tutorial

Frequently, I receive search requests from Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to look for theses/dissertations and usually they are really out of place.

Here is a guide on how to search for theses/dissertations:

In our library, they are cataloged under the AS call number range, more specifically as AS36 .N64 if it is a dissertation, AS36 .N65 if it is a thesis.  Underneath this call number, there will be the academic department in an abbreviated form (i.e. Hist for History, Educ. for Education, and so on), and then there will be a year (i.e. 12 for 2012) and then a dash and another number denoting the number order it issued especially if there are multiple theses/dissertations awarded for a particular year.  The completed call number might look like this: AS36 .N64 Music 06-05 (only vertically of course and on the spine of the book).  On the top of the spine, there should be the student’s last name, although this may vary on binding practices over the years as well as if they had to obtain another copy because it went missing or was lost/stolen.

Seems fairly easy to shelve right?  Well, wrong on you for thinking that because there is a multitude of ways that it could be miss-shelved.  See below for a list of common miss-shelving mistakes rating for the most-likely to the rarer:

      1.   Theses are shelved with the dissertations and vice versa.  As if the color isn’t a key indicator (theses are usually green and dissertations black), I guess the 5 can become a 4 in some folks’ minds.

      2.  Sometimes they are shelved at the beginning of the dissertations because folks are just confused on how to shelve them or patrons are trying to help out by reshelving them.

      3.  If it is an oversized one (they are all shelved together not in the ff’s), they will most likely be miss-shelved lying flat on the shelf.

      4.  The years and order number at the bottom of the call number confuses everyone. Today I found one that was at the beginning of the Music range rather than toward the end where it ought to have been.  Call number: AS36 .N64 Music 06-05 and a bunch of others were crammed at the beginning, which happens to be in the 1970s if I remember correctly.

      5.  Education theses/dissertations frequently find themselves shelved with the English and vice versa.  Why? Well…I have no idea, same with the P.E. and the Psychology and the Political Science ones; along with the HHP, Hist. and the H.Ec’s.  Maybe the same beginning letter messes with folks’ heads.

      6.   Of course they might be randomly shelved within the theses/dissertations (usually numerically correct with the year published), so if all else fails, shelf-read, or at least look for your missing thesis/dissertation by the last name.

Thus, ends the tutorial of searching for theses/dissertations.  I hope this helps in looking for them and I haven’t left anyone completely confused and lost.

Happy Hunting!

The Next Shelf Over

Frequently books are found on a shelf above, below, to the left, or the right of where it ought to be.  These books sometimes are shelved right by the cutter, but wrong by the number and the call number initial letter.

Such is the case for the books listed below:

PN2286 .B67 1986 shelved as PN2287 .B67 1986 right next to a PN2287 .B6

GT4965 .G35 2002 shelved as GT4935 .G35 2002 right next to a GT4935 .G53 (oddly enough).

Happy Searching!

E’s and Decimals

Another heavily used part of our collection is the E185s, otherwise known as African American history and boy are there a lot of them!  They range from 185-185.98 and beyond. 

Common miss-shelving errors in this section can be found in the E184s, or immigration history as well as a lot of decimal errors such as E185.615 can often be found with the E185.61, E185.86, or E185.68 for example.

Other less common errors are once again the cutter confusion and letter miss-reads within the cutters and rest of the call number.  One from last week that one of my students found, was E185.86 .C58214 1998 found shelved as E185.68 .B58214 1998. 

One time I found one with both a decimal miss-shelve as well as a letter mix up within the cutter as well so it was a combo doozy of a find!

A best search analysis since these can be found anywhere within this call number range, which in our library takes up about a row and a half, is shelf-reading.  I know it’s not everyone’s favorite, but it can be anywhere within this range.

Good luck and happy searching!

There is something about 4874

This weekend I got a search request for the call number PN4874 .T444 A3 1998B.  After about 30 min of searching in the 4784’s and the 4871’s sure that this item was miss-shelved as most of the others I’ve had to search for in this range.  Lo and behold! It was where it should have been.

I’m left to assume that perhaps either the patron didn’t know how to search our call number system or 4874 mesmerized the patron as it almost did me.  There are a few other spots like this in the stacks, but that is for another post.

Happy Searching!

R-RA-RAWR!

The common miss-shelvings of the R call number range is that they are either in another R section (i.e. R in an RA: a common occurrence), or the decimals are just ignored or folks don’t know their numbers like they should. 

Such is the case with the one I found this past weekend:
The search was for R727.4 .P375 2012 and it was found shelved as if it were R727.3 .P375 2012.
Sometimes I even find that a missing item is miss-shelved in the wrong letter and has a decimal miss-shelving error. 

Then again less often than not, folks have number placement problems within the R’s too (i.e. a RA448.5 in a RA484.5); however, I haven’t had much of an issue with this since they moved from the basement to the 9th floor.

Happy Searching!