Education & Teaching: In the Library

The Library is home to a wide range of physical resources including books, journals, DVDs, audiobooks, reports, theses, maps, resource packs and even puppets.  Although most resources are readily accessible on open shelves some are kept in closed-access stores or behind the Service Desk.  

Our standard student loan period is 3 weeks.  Books with '7 day loan' stickers on the spine may be borrowed for a week at a time. Books labelled reference only may not be borrowed. Most of the children's resources in the Teaching Resources Collection may be borrowed for 12 weeks at a time (find out more about the Teaching Resources Collection in the Special Collections tab above).

Below is a list of the main shelfmarks for education and teaching. Shelfmarks up to and including to 613 are downstairs. Shelfmarks from 614 onwards are upstairs.

Books are arranged on the shelves by subject using a numerical classification scheme called Dewey Decimal Classification (or just 'Dewey')*.  Stickers on the spine of each book display the Dewey shelfmark, followed by the first three letters of the author's surname (also known as the 'suffix').Books are arranged on the shelves firstly in Dewey order and then in author order. Books with no suffix (e.g. with no named author) are shelved together at the start of each shelfmark.

Read more about how Dewey works in our What To Expect From The Library guide, in the section called How the Library is Organised. We've also produced a PowerPoint presentation called How To Find A Book on the Shelves.

In our Library there are signs on each shelving bay indicating the range of shelfmarks on each bay, as well as individual subject guidance.

*Except for items in our Lincolnshire Collection, which are classified using a system called Bliss Classification.

Below are the main shelfmarks for the teaching of individual subjects. Shelfmarks up to and including 613 are downstairs. Shelfmarks 614 and above are upstairs.