Q&A for How to Shelve Books in a Library

All books that qualify as fiction would be classified under fiction. The history section is for non-fiction historical titles.

Shelve them alphabetically by author surname in the category they are in: easy reader, picture books etc.

If you mean books that have fewer numbers/letters, it depends. Drew would come before Drewer, because spaces after letters are treated as coming before the letter A. With numbers, 793.4 comes before 793.43, but it comes after 793.389.

You will first have to do a subject analysis on the book to decide which main class the book belongs to. Then you will have to keep breaking down the sub-classes by referring to information found in the Tables (Dewey Decimal 'rules' on how to class subjects). It can become a bit complicated. Many books have already been given Dewey Decimal numbers. You can find this information on the title page verso where the publishing and cataloging information is found.

Shelve in series order if you can see the series lable on the spine. If not, shelve alphabetically according to title.

If you shelf them according to numbers it will be easier for you to find the book you are looking for.

They are shelved according to subject, then author.

They are normally either in the Biographies (think Anne Frank), or by subject matter (think "Into Thin Air" by Krakauer).

It depends on the library and what system they use to organize their books. Most libraries have their books in alphabetical order according to either the book's title or author in a certain category.

Not all of them. When I got mine I was only tested on sorting trolleys (this actually takes longer than shelving if the trolley isn't in order to start with), and it's completely possible that there's a library out there that doesn't test its shelvers at all.

You should alphabetize by the next word. The same goes for "A" and "An." Some libraries extend this to foreign-language articles as well, so for example, "Un Village Francais" would be filed under V instead of U.

Depending on the classification of each book, (I am going to assume that they are in the same class) the books can either be shelved alphabetically starting with the title of the book or by the author's last name. If both of the books have the same last name for the author, you would then turn to the first name to shelve them alphabetically. Hope it helped!

Identifying the Dewey, LCon, or other call number of a book is known as classification. Classification also includes identifying a book's subject, and it's just one part of the cataloging process.

It depends on the library. Sometimes libraries skip the "the" and go to the next word. Others file those books under "the."

If it's a single story written by multiple authors, then usually it's shelved under the last name of the first author listed. (If the authors are writing under the banner of a group, like The Detection Club, it may be shelved under "Detection.") If it's a book of short stories by many authors, then usually it's shelved under the title, or occasionally under the last name of the editor. Non-fiction books with multiple authors should be shelved under Dewey or LoC number anyway, so the issue of multiple authors doesn't matter as much.

If they don't have a decimal point, it's probably because the collection is so small that you can get away with shelving all of the books in any order. If you think this is too confusing, you could shelve them numerically and then by the author's last name, or numerically and then by topic.

The Dewey Decimal number will give you the class number that will take you to the section, and from there you will file it after the decimal point accordingly from the lowest cutter number to the highest.

Just shelve them in alphabetical order as you ordinarily would, and then by the call numbers on the spine.

If the author's name is not on the cover, look at the first few pages. If you still don't see it, search for the book online. Be aware that some books don't have an author. Instead, there may be an editor, a translator or a publisher. It's possible you could shelve a book based on such a person's name.

FIC is for fiction books, a number on the spine would be for Dewey Decimal nonfiction, an E may mean "Easy Readers", as in books for younger children. Some schools do things differently, but they should all be centered around this way.

They are shelved just like the public libraries, with the same FIC and Dewey Decimal system and rules. Primary schools may have extra markers for little kids' books.

Shelve as many books as you can onto a shelf or until a marker or point where you want to put something else (like an ornament) is reached. Be careful not to bend paperbacks when shelving crowded shelves.

Yes. Books are shelved horizontally on the top shelf of a bookshelf, and then you move down onto the second shelf of the same bookshelf, etc. until you reach the bottom, where you move to the top of the next bookshelf.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green should be shelved as FIC GRE. Fiction books are shelved by the first three letters of the author's last name.

An FIC label means that the book is fiction. A book like 123.456 would be a non-fiction book shelved under the Dewey Decimal system. There are a few other markers, but these two are the most common.

Shelve under the author name that comes first, which in the example would be FIC PAT.

If it was fiction, it would be shelved under FIC KET. Nonfiction would be shelved with a Dewey Decimal number.

If it is a fiction book, you'll file it according to how you spell the number. For example, if you have a book where the title starts with a 12, you'd put it under the "T" section for "twelve" going in alphabetical order. If it is a nonfiction book, you'd shelve it according to the Dewey Decimal system. If you're not sure how to shelve a book, always ask a library worker for help.

Books are usually shelved from left to right on library shelves. However, some libraries may do it differently. You can always ask a librarian or look at the books shelved to see which way they are organized.

Assuming that La Plant is the last name, if it is a fiction book it'd be shelved under "L". If it's nonfiction, it'd be shelved according to the Dewey Decimal system. You can always ask a librarian for help if you don't know where a book belongs.