finding books in the library
TRANSCRIPT
Finding Books in the Tavistock Library
As in most libraries, the documents in the Tavistock library are
organised by
shelfmark.
You will find the shelfmark for a book at the bottom of its record
on the catalogue.
You can also see if the document is located in
the book room or in
the main library.
The Tavistock Library uses a classification system called
BLISS.
It works by theme, so books on a same topic are placed
next to each other.
For example:
- A is for philosophy
- C is for chemistry
- S is for law- W is for arts- …
Most of the books in the library start
with an i because
i is for psychology
BLISS works a little like the Dewey, but uses
mostly letters instead of numbers.
You read the shelfmarks
from left to right and compare them
letter by letter,
alphabetically.
Example:
ISP BLV
IM
Example:
ISP BLV
IM
Both of those shelfmarks
start with an i.
Example:
ISP BLV
IM
So we need to look at the
second character.
Example:
ISP BLV
IM
M goes before Sso the book with the shelfmark
IM will be placed before the
one with ISP BLV
If a shelfmark includes a number, remember that
numbers go before letters.
So for example:
ISX 3ML
ISX A
The 3 first characters of the shelfmark are the same (ISX)
so we look at the 4th.
So for example:
ISX 3ML
ISX A
Since numbers go before letters, ISX 3ML will go on the shelf
before ISX A.
Finally, if two books
have the same shelfmark, then they
will be ordered
alphabetically by
the surname of the
first author.
So this graphic novel
by Katie Green will go before
the one by Paul Karasik.
And if you’ve got lots of books by
the same author(like our extensive
collection of Freud’s works)
then do check their
volume number!
If you still can’t find the document
you’re looking for… then
ask a librarian!
Thank you for reading and see you in the library!
The Tavistock and Portman Library