Law Library Call Number System
Finding Books: The Library of Congress System
Knowing something about the Library of Congress (LC) classification system can help you find relevant books in the library. If you know a call number for a particular legal subject, for example family law (U.S. Law) is in the KF 501-KF 553 range, you can go to that section of the library and browse for relevant books. see Law Subjects with Library of Congress Classification.
You can use Scholar to remotely browse a section of the library. If you do a call number search for KF 501, you can view titles for all the United States family law books in the library. The books may be located in the Reserve Room, Reference Area, Room AO66 or the Atrium level stacks. Note that if you want books about family law for a specific state, the call number will be different. For OHIO family law, you will need to search for KFO 94. See Index to Ohio KFO Call Numbers.
The call number and level on which a book is located can be discovered by searching Scholar. For major sets, look in the Range Guide for call numbers and floors. The Range Guide is a binder located at the Information Services desk. Maps of the Law Library indicate which call numbers are on which levels.
Example of an LC Call Number: KF 299 .P8 G74 2000 for The Great Firm Escape: Harvard Law School’s Guide to Breaking Out of Private Practice and Into Public Service
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To see classifications under Law, Class K, and United States Law, Class KF see Library of Congress Classification Outline, Class K. The single letter "K" (law in general), comes before double letters such as KB, KF, etc. A "KF" call number may have an additional letter, indicating the state. For example, KFO indicates Ohio, Oklahoma or Oregon.
For more information on the LC Classification system please visit the Library of Congress web site.
Reading Call Numbers
Items are shelved in call number sequence – in both alphabetical and numerical order. The numbers immediately following the letters are arranged in basic numerical order, i.e. 5 then 6, 49 then 50, 99 then 100. Thus, in Table 1, KF 3 precedes KF 29.
Table 1
Two Types of Numerical Order
KF 2 .A74 |
KF 2 .A8 |
KF 3 .Z4 |
KF 29 .C29 |
KF 29 .C3 |
Cutter numbers are the numbers after the decimal point. The cutter numbers (.A74, .A8, .Z4, .C29, and .C3 in the above example) are sorted first by the letter alphabetically and then by the number as a decimal. For KF 2 .A74, think of it as being KF 2 A 0.74; for KF 2 .A8, read KF 2 A 0.80. Thus .A74 comes before .A8 in Table 1; .C29 before .C3, because .29 comes before .30.
In addition, the library may add location symbols preceding a call number which define the area where the materials are shelved.
Location Codes at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library:
| Code | Location |
| RR | Reserve Room (ask at the Information Services Desk) |
| Ohio | Ohio Room, Room 124 |
| Ref | Reference Area on the First Level |
| AO66 | Skills and Professional Practice Collection, Room AO66, Atrium Level |
| GovDocs | US Government Documents collection, Second Level |
| Micro | Microform Collection, Base Level |
| Base Media Collection | Casual Reading Area on the Base Level |
| Acq | Technical Services Department (ask at the Information Services Desk). |
Since Scholar is a combined catalog, titles in the Law Library have LAW before the location, and titles at the University Library in Rhodes Tower indicate locations and floors at that library.
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sa 7/2008
links checked 8/10/2009 aeb