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Faculty Resources: Library of Congress Classification System

Welcome faculty! This guide serves as a reference to our resources and services. We hope you'll find this guide a useful tool for your research and teaching needs.

Organization of Library Materials

WVU Tech Library organizes its book collections using the Library of Congress Classification System. This is an alpha-numeric hierarchical system in which all knowledge is divided into 21 main classes. Each main class is identified by a single letter. For example, World History is classed under D. See the outline below. Subclasses of knowledge are then broken down and identified by two-letter arrangement. For example, books about the History of Great Britain are classed under DA.  Topics are assigned whole numbers. An example would be DA129-260 are books covering Early and Medieval to 1485; and subtopics are given decimal numbers combined with a letter and is known as the cutter line. 

Examples:

D                                                                         E                                                                  E
505                                                                    12                                                                 208
.W35                                                                 .T526                                                           .B68
 

D = World History                                                 E = America                                               E = America
505 = World War I                                                12 = General                                              208 = The Revolution, 1775-1783
.W = author's last name Walton                        ,T = Time-Life books                               .B68 = author's last name Boatner   
35 = based on the cutter table                           526 = based on cutter table                   68 = based on cutter table