Our service tip for December

Understanding shelfmarks

Searching library shelves for one specific title can be exhausting as there are about two million books in our reading rooms. Here is how you can find your media quickly:

Each of our books and other items is tagged with a so-called shelfmark. It tells you where to find an item as it contains a variety of information: The location and classification number of a book as well as a codification of the author's name and further information (edition, volume) are all contained in this little combination of numbers and letters.

Before setting out on the quest for your book(s) which are "available", search our catalogue and write down the shelfmark(s). Books with the status "available for order" can be ordered via the catalogue.

Example: An introduction to English syntax / 2. edition

Our service tip for July_ Shelfmark_2

The shelfmark can be found in the index-tab „Holdings“ of your search results in our catalogue. It consists of three main components:

 107/ZX 7200 L274(2)+2

107: location The letters before the slash tell you in which department library a book is located.
  Detailed information on each location can be found here (list of locations). Location 107 e.g. can be found on the ground floor of Central Library.
   
ZX 7200: The classification number contains coded information about the content of a medium.
classification number The subject headings in the catalogue help you to understand the meaning of a specific classification number.
   
L274(2)+3: L274: coded form of author's name
further information (2): edition
  +3: number of copies
  -1: volume