Finding books by shelfmark Library Guide Introduction
Zones
This factsheet is a quick guide to help you understand how to read our shelfmarks to locate books and print journals. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have! Many universities, including Brunel, use the Library of Congress classification system to organise their books.
Floor 0
Study Skills Collection
Floor 1
Books A-J
Floor 2
Books K-Z (K is in the Law Library area)
Floor 3
Print Journals A-Z
235 This can be a bit confusing at first, particularly when you are used to the way books are organised in public libraries or bookshops. However, it’s very useful for universities as it allows them to organise their books by very specific topics.
Think of it as Brunel’s version of the “Fantasy/Sci-Fi” or “Romance” labels you would see in a bookshop.
Breaking it into bits Don’t bite off more than you can chew! At first glance, a shelfmark can seem unreadable. But by knowing what to look for, you can determine what floor and shelf your book is on. The most important thing is to read the shelfmark in order—so don’t worry about what’s after the decimal point if you’re still trying to figure out what the letters at the start mean! Let’s use the book Peasants and Landlords in Later Medieval England as an example. This book has the following shelfmark: DA235.F79 1999 We can divide it into the following pieces:
DA
This helps you find out where in the zone the book is located. It’s just a regular number—they go in order from 1 to 9999. There are A4 sheets on the end of each bookshelf to show you what numbers are housed there.
DA 235 . (the decimal point) F 79 1999
The first letter shows you what floor the book is on, and the second shows you which zone it is in. A-J is on Floor 1, and KZ is on Floor 2. It’s the alphabet twice over, so you would need to go through A to AZ before getting to B. Since this shelfmark starts with DA, it’s on Floor 1. Refer to the maps at the Information Stations on each floor if you’re not sure where the different zones are.
F Works just like the letters above.
79 This is where it gets a bit trickier! Unlike the numbers above, this is a decimal number. If you’re feeling stuck, try ignoring the letters and treat the numbers as you would money: £235.79. If you see a single number (such as 235.8), add a zero after it: £235.60, £235.79, £235.80
1999 The year that this edition of the book was published.
Still confused? Contact us!
Library Brunel University, Uxbridge Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK Tel +44(0) 1895 266141 E-mail library@brunel.ac.uk Web www.brunel.ac.uk/library