The Oddly Shelved from Fall 2013 Semester

As you can probably tell I haven’t posted on this blog in a while and it’s because I’ve been rather busy especially in the last weeks of the last semester.

Therefore, I thought I would post some of the oddly shelved examples I found and some of you have found from last semester:

• ·         BF575.H27 G55 2006 shelved as BF575.A27 G55 2006 (Yet another great reason why you should look in the sections surrounding it as well as everything that begins with BF575 or whatever beginning part of the call number you are looking for)
• ·         HG1552.E64 D49 2011 shelved as HD1552.E64 D49 2011 (Note these are now shelved on separate floors and yet because they are both H’s they still get miss-shelved among each other…make sure you search in all of these locations even if a letter is split between 2 + floors)
• ·         TR655 .H4780 2011 shelved as TH655 .H4780 2011 (Make sure you look as if it were shelved in other locations as well as all the other photography books since that area is almost always a mess and shelving nightmare)
• ·         PQ8180.17.A73 C6813 1983 shelved as PR8180.17.A73 C6813 1983 (Note PQ and PR are on separate floors like the HD/HG example)
• ·         QC981.8.C5 O77 2009 shelved as QD981.C5 O77 2009 (Not only was it shelved in the wrong letter, the decimal was completely dropped and forgotten)
• ·         P92.U5 B7 1989 shelved between P92.U5 O44 1999 and P92.U5 R8 (I’m not even going to venture a guess as to what happened here except it happens all the time so the only thing I can guess is someone was looking at it and put it back randomly, but at least it was near where it was supposed to be?)

Happy Searching!

Over sized/Over folio as their own Collection

Recently whenever I receive a search for an over sized/over folio book or even while I'm searching the stacks for something completely different, I stumble upon in the over sized collection an over sized book that doesn't even belong on that floor.

It's always hard already because no one seems to know what the FF or F means in front of the call number or the difference between the two.  When I first began as the search coordinator, all I ever usually had to worry about in regard to the over sized/over folio collection was that they usually were miss-shelved in both sections (F meaning the books are so large or sometimes rare they need to lay on their sides and FF meaning the book is a bit bigger than the regular books and require larger shelving), or they sometimes ended up in with the regular books.  This miss-shelving of the FF's usually occur with the art and photography books because they have the most.

However, now it seems as if they are treated as their own collection spread among different floors.  I have found ff PQ's with the ff PR's and I even found an ff Z mixed with the ff C's.  Therefore, if you are ever searching for an over sized/over folio book, make sure you are looking at every book that is in the over sized and over folio on that floor, where it would be shelved with the "regular" sized books, and possibly with the over sized books on other floors too.

Happy Searching!

The Marriage of Call Numbers

Well, maybe not exactly, but close enough.  What do I mean by the marriage of call numbers?  I mean the sheer fact that for some reason some call numbers end up with other call numbers about 95% of the time if they are miss-shelved.

A perfect example of two such call numbers, are ones that begin with PN/PQ.  For some reason one is always in the other.  Another is PR/PS…must be something with the P’s!! 

Case in point, it is always important to check the other letters on the floor as if they are supposed to be shelved in that letter section.

Example for today’s post: PQ2605.A3734 E813 1989 shelved as PN2605.A3734 E813 1989.