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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 LD781.M47 H47 2009?
A magnified image of call numbers in the LD781 range.
To read a call number, read the number from left to right or top to bottom as follows:
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 of the shelves.
TIP! There are maps of the "stacks" (library shelves) at the end of each aisle.
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:
Locate books, articles, and more from all UC campuses and beyond in this unified discovery and borrowing system. Use filters and alternative search scopes to narrow your results. Connect via the VPN to view all content available to you. Log in to your account to request material.
Use UC Library Search to find eBooks, print books, as well as articles and other materials (UC Merced Library, 6:17).
Fall 2021 Workshop Recording: Using UC Library Search (~ 9 minutes)
Get it at UC connects you from a source citation to the resource.
You will be taken to UC Library Search where you can navigate to the full-text of the source OR initiate a request for the source through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
The Get it at UC button will appear in many library databases. Use it to more easily locate or request the resources you need!
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.
If you know the subject headings that are likely to be tagged on the item you want to find, search by Subject. California -- Merced County is an example of a Geographical Subject Heading.
Subject Headings appear as hyperlinked tags on a book's record in the library catalog.
To search by Subject Heading, start by going to the Advanced Search in UC Library Search, and use the dropdown menu to choose the Subject field.
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