Library Help: How to locate books in the Library

How do you find a book located in the children's section of the library? What's the P or X or the long numbers mean? Very good questions. Let me try to answer them for you.

All of the books in the children's section will begin with JUV and then have a P, X, M, E, B, SS, or a long number for non-fiction on the spine of the book.


P = Picture Book
X = Chapter Book
M = Mystery
E = Easy Reader
B = Biography
SS = Short Story (you will find these in with the fiction chapter books)
Nonfiction = short or long dewy decimal number (110 or 389.0098)

All fiction books (P, X, M, and E) are put in order on the shelf by the author's last name. The call number (that's what us librarian people call it) will start with the (P, X, M, and E) and end with the author's last name. For example Dr. Seuss's call number would be P Seus.


The call number for short stories may look a little different. For the short stories that are all written by the same author the call number will be SS and the author's last name. For example SS Oate for Joyce Carol Oates. If the short stories are written by different authors than the call number will be SS and the first word in the title. For example SS What for a title that starts with What.


Say you are looking for Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants series. Where would you look?


If you answered, chapter book section give yourself a round of applause. You are correct.


So then once you are in the juvenile chapter book section where would you find Captain Underpants.


If your answer is under the authors last name give yourself a high five from me. Very good.


You will find Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants series in the chapter book section under the call number X Pilk.


You have to do a report on Martin Luther King Jr. and you need a biography on him. How do you look for it? The call number for a biography will look like this B Kin Mcke. B for biography Kin for Martin Luther King and Mcke for the author of the biography Don Mckee. So if you are in the biography section and want to see what we have on Martin Luther King Jr. find the Kin section and you will most likely find some books unless all are checked out.

One of our most popular areas in the library is the non-fiction dinosaur section. Most of the dinosaur books will have a call number of 567.91. That number will then be followed by the authors last name. This goes for any non-fiction book you are looking for. It will have a dewy number followed by the authors last name.

So now you know a little better how to locate books in the library.