Research Guides: SPAN 344: Hispanic Cultures Through Literatures IV: Buscar Libros

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How to read an LC Call Number

Library of Congress (LC) Call Numbers are like an item's address to help you find where it lives on the shelf. Each letter stands for an academic discipline. In the image below, L is for Education, LD is for Individual Institutions - United States. Can you guess which institution is at LD 4363 .U55 2006?

To read a call number, read the number from left to right or top to bottom as follows:

Alphabetically (L before LC, LC before LD)
Numerically (4363 before 4364.6)
Alphabetically (.A before .B)
Decimal order (.A2 before .A5 or .A55)
(Sometimes there are more pieces in alphabetical and then numerical order here)
Finally, chronologically (1985 before 1986) This is year of publication and may or may not be included.

Lastly, the shelf is organized from top to bottom in sections, so you'll zig-zag down each section to look for your call number before moving to the next section.

Bonus: You can also click the "Locate" option in LibrarySearch to see a floor map with the number of the shelf your item is on.

LC Subject Classification

Library of Congress Classification Subject Areas

Please note, some of the UO Libraries' materials may be located in branch libraries or special locations within Knight Library.
Letter	Subject Area
A	General Works
B	Philosophy, Psychology, Religion
C	Auxiliary Sciences of History
D	World History
E	History of the Americas
F	History of the Americas
G	Geography, Anthropology, Recreation
H	Social Sciences
J	Political Science
K	Law
L	Education
M	Music
N	Fine Arts
P	Language and Literature
Q	Science
R	Medicine
S	Agriculture
T	Technology
U	Military Science
V	Naval Science
Z	Bibliography, Library Science, Information Resources

To drill down into the LC Classification Outline, use the link below:

Library of Congress Classification Outline

UO LibrarySearch - Find articles, books, and more

LibrarySearch offers a streamlined interface for finding books and other media that combines the collections of UO Libraries and Summit libraries.

eBook Databases

Ebook central This link opens in a new window
Ebook Central delivers, with breadth and depth of ebooks from scholarly sources, including University Presses and other top publishers.
CLACSO This link opens in a new window
A partnership led by the Latin American Research Resources Project (LARRP) in collaboration with the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), JSTOR, and Latin American bookseller García Cambeiro. Working toward introducing a sustainable Open Access model for monographs, the first phase of the pilot project is making 200 ebooks available on an Open Access basis on JSTOR : covering CLACSO’s frontlist titles published in Argentina in 2018-2019.

Using LC Subject Headings to Search

What are LCSH?

Books, videos, and other materials in library catalogs are assigned official subject headings by the Library of Congress (LCSH) by cataloging librarians. These subject headings describe an item's content and what it is about, and are useful for focusing research on broader, narrower, or related topics. Look for subject heading links in the library catalog to find more items on the same topic. Some subject headings are dated or even problematic, and they can be changed through a petition process.

For example, the book Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom has LC subject headings to describe it like "Hispanic Americans in motion pictures" and "Race in motion pictures," but (as of 2022), "Latina" is not an official LCSH and "Latinos" is listed as a variant.

Using LCSH in your LibrarySearch searches

If you know the subject headings that are likely to be tagged on the item you want to find, search by Subject. Eugene (Or.) -- History is an example of a Geographical Subject Heading.

About LCSH Subdivisions

About Subject Heading Subdivisions

Subdivisions, or subheadings, are words or phrases which may be added to a subject heading to create a more effective search. They are hyperlinked in LibrarySearch so that you can use them to see all records they are connected with.

Some standard subheadings are:

Type of Subdivision	Examples	Useful for:
Topical – What this item is about (content)	Museums Aging Statistical Methods	Narrowing a broader topic into subtopics
Form	Dictionaries Periodicals Textbooks	Useful for locating specific types of materials
Chronological	21st century Japanese Heian period, 794-1185 Middle Ages, 600-1500	Locating information about a particular era or time period
Geographical (place)	England --London Eugene (Or.) Narnia (Imaginary place)	Finding information about a specific place or region
Other Common Subdivisions	Bibliography Biography Criticism and interpretation Translations into [language] Social life and customs Fiction	Locating bibliographies, fiction, etc.