The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) is a classification system that was first developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to organize and arrange the book collections of the Library of Congress. Over the course of the twentieth century, the system was adopted for use by other libraries as well, especially large academic libraries in the United States. It is currently one of the most widely used library classification systems in the world. The Library's Policy and Standards Division maintains and develops the system, posting lists of updates.
Book title: Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam
Author: Daniel C. Hallin
Call Number: DS559.46 .H35 1986
The first two lines describe the subject of the book
DS559.45 = Vietnamese Conflict
The third line often represents the author's last name
H = Hallin
The last line represents the date of publication c1986
1. Read the first line in alphabetical order:
A, B, BF, C, D... L, LA, LB, LC, M, ML...
2. Read the second line as a whole number:
1, 2, 3, 45, 100, 101, 1000, 2000, 2430...
(Sometimes there are decimals in the first number. In these cases, read the whole numbers first but the numbers following the decimal are read as decimals.)
3. The third line is a combination of a letter and numbers. It is referred to as the Cutter Number
eg: .C65 = .65 .C724 = .724
4. The last line is the year the book was published.
Read in chronological order:
1985, 1991, 1992...
LC Easy and ShelvIt are available on HACC Libraries Circulation Desk computers for further training.
