The Misreading of Call Numbers

Sorry for the not so appealing title for this post, but today while searching, I found my search on the shelf with some others where the cutter of the call number was read wrong.  The search had the call number PN1040 .A513 1997 and was shelved just after the PN1040 .A53 's.  It then clicked in my brain that a lot of patrons get confused on how to read the numbers of a call number.   Patrons’ confusion over reading call numbers is important because that is how we discover where they are miss-shelved.

Take for example the above call number, PN1040 .A513 1997 should be read where .A513 should be viewed as if you were reading a decimal.  In decimal reading, .513 is smaller than .53 and not larger.  Sometimes patrons don’t read it this way and see the .513 as 513 (five hundred thirteen), which is more than 53 (fifty-three) if you exclude the decimal point.  In addition, sometimes patrons think in the opposite direction when it comes to decimals as well where they stick a .513 before a .5.  Just because a decimal may have more numbers, does not mean it should go before a decimal with less numbers. 

Also sometimes, though rarer than the decimals, patrons read that PN1040 as being next to a PN104.  1040 is not one hundred forty, but one thousand forty as we would really read a 4 digit whole number this way without a decimal.  To continue on with numbers with decimals after the letters corresponding to the subject, 1040.56 is obviously more than 1040.5 (add a zero to the 5 and it becomes .50 which is less than .56 since zero is smaller than 6), but patrons also forget about that as well.

Therefore, we can use how patrons understand decimals and the other numbers in the LC call number system to our aid when searching for books by thinking the way they are misreading the numbers.

Hopefully in this explanation I have not confused you all and my attempt has not been in vain.

Happy Searching! J

Books Hiding Other Books

A good tip and a cardinal rule really is to always remember is to look behind the shelf of books of which you are searching even if that shelf is not where the book ought to be but could be. 

Well for a couple of weeks, I have been breaking this rule and ignoring my own tip when one of my student assistants found one of our missings hiding behind some other books on a shelf several shelves below where it ought to have been.  It didn’t look like it had fallen between the shelves (our shelves are metal with a nice sized gap formed with the sections from the next row.  Instead, after the book had already been miss-shelved, another shelver (whether it was patron or employee is unclear) had crammed several books in front of our poor missing book to the back and thus concealing it from view.

In case anyone was wondering what missing book it was, Practical Research Planning and Design Q180.55.M4 L43 2013, a nasty section on its own because of the decimal (there happens to be several books bearing 180.5) and because there are several “M” cutters that tend to confuse the eye.

So an important lesson and Cardinal Rule #1: Always check behind the books on the shelf of which you are learning.

Happy Searching! J

The Miss-shelving Book Hider

Recently, while searching, I have encountered on several occasions books from 2 or 3 rows over crammed at the end of a shelf of books.  Also, on a shelf where the book end was slipping and some of the books leaning over, someone decided to cram a book (again 2 rows off where it should have been) in the little gap between the remaining upright books and the leaning ones. 

I’m unsure of who is doing this other than it is good practice for everyone who searches for missing items to occasionally look at the end of every shelf on every row as well as browse the books you pass by as you walk down the row.  Recently, I have found several miss-shelved items this way and on the rare occasion one that I had been looking for several months.  The most recent subjects this seems to be a reoccurring theme are all the G-GV’s, N’s, PN’s, PR , and PS.

Keep your eyes peeled and look out for books on the end of the shelves as well as the random miss-shelved ones in the middle of the shelf.

Happy Searching! J