LibGuides: Searching for Books, E-Books, Library Materials: Searching for books, ebooks, library materials

Searching Discovery

The Library's Discovery search is like "Google" for the Library - it searches for a little bit of everything - Books, EBooks, Articles, Movies, etc. from a wide variety of subjects.

Search Discovery on the Library's Home page.

Handout on Searching Discovery and Library Catalog

Searching Library Catalog

The Library Catalog is used to search for:

PRINT BOOKS (no ebooks)
MOVIES/DVDs (no streaming)
Specific Library Collections such as Juvenile/children's book collection; Keene Public Library; Curriculum Materials Library; Holocaust & Genocide Studies Collection; Music and Audio Books

Handout on Searching Discovery and Library Catalog

Reading Call Numbers

Use this handout on How to Read a Call Number

A classification system uses letters and numbers (call numbers) to arrange the books so that books on the same topic are together. Think of it as an address.

The Library of Congress Classification System has 21 classes and over 225 subclasses, represented by letters. You can see a break down of the LC subjects on this handout.

Call numbers look different if they are on the spine of the book, vs in the library's catalog.

Here is an example of the basic structure of a LC call number:

Book title: Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam Call number 'LB 2395 .C65 1991' on the spine of a book and in the online catalog
Author: Daniel C. Hallin
Call Number: DS559.46 .H35 1986

The first two lines describe the subject of the book.
DS559.45 = Vietnamese Conflict

The third line often represents the author's last name.
H = Hallin

The last line represents the date of publication.

Read call numbers line by line.

Read the first line in alphabetical order: A, B, BF, C, D... L, LA, LB, LC, M, ML...
Read the second line as a whole number: 1, 2, 3, 45, 100, 101, 1000, 2000, 2430...
Read the third line alphabetically first, then as a decimal (single digit), eg: .C65 comes before .C7
Some call numbers have more than one letter-number line.
Sometimes the last line is the year the book was published. Read in chronological order.
Sometimes a call number contains a volume number labeled v.1, v.2, etc. These are shelved in whole number numerical order within the set of books.
Sometimes a call number contains a copy number if there are multiple copies of the same book on the shelf, labeled c.1, c.2, etc. These are shelved in whole number order.
Remember: NEVER GUESS. If you're not sure what a call number says, ask us.

Always remember this mantra: "nothing comes before something."

If a book contains no volume number, that book comes before a book within a set that does contain a volume number. If a book contains no date in the call number, that book comes before the same book that does have a date in the call number.

Library Locations

Once you have the call numbers, you need to go to the correct LOCATION in the library and identify which "stacks" (shelves) have the range of call numbers that your specific call number falls between.

There are many LOCATIONS in the library that you will see identified in the catalog.