First Floor: Journal Collection Media Viewing Room Children's Literature and Textbooks
Third Floor
One of the first things you need to know to locate information in the library is the physical arrangement of the library. Like most other libraries, the St. Mary's University Academic Library contains a number of different collections organized in different manners. Most of the books in the library are in the circulating book collection on the third floor. These are books which may be checked out of the library and they are organized in Library of Congress (LC) classification order.
St. Mary's doctoral dissertations are integrated into the circulating book collection on the third floor. All of these dissertations can be located in the online catalog by doing a subject keyword search using the words "St. Mary's University Dissertation." St. Mary's Theses are located in the Thesis Collection on the second floor.
Another collection of materials located on the third floor is Special Collections, a limited access area which contains rare books on the Spanish history of Texas, nineteenth century mathematics, and other subjects. Special Collections is a closed stack area and you must make an appointment with the Special Collections librarian before using this resource. A computer lab run by the Computer Center is also located on the third floor along with the LAC (Learning Assistance Center) which is a tutoring service for students.
Since much of the material in the library is organized by Library of Congress Classification, you should become familiar with this system. LC classification is subject-based, that is, books on the same subject are found classed together in the same area near one another. The link above gives an outline of the classification system. The table below also gives a short list of the classification groups used by Library of Congress. The full classification scheme is very complex and takes thousands of pages to display.
Library of Congress (LC) Classification
| Class | Subject |
| A | General Works |
| B-BJ | Philosophy, Psychology |
| BL-BX | Religion |
| C-F | History |
| G | Geography |
| H-HJ | Economics |
| HM-HX | Sociology |
| HV | Criminal Justice |
| J | Political Science |
| K | Law |
| L | Education |
| M | Music |
| N | Fine Arts |
| P | Literature and Languages |
| Q | Science |
| R | Medicine |
| S | Agriculture |
| T | Technology |
| U | Military Science |
| V | Naval Science |
| Z | Library Science |
Finding Books on the Shelves
Full LC call numbers take the form of letters and numbers. The top two lines of the call number are part of the LC subject classification and are used to communicate the subject area of the book. The first line is alphabetical, the second is numerical and they are filed in strict alphabetical and numerical order.
The next line is generally called the "cutter" after Charles Cutter who originated the concept. It is a code for the author's surname. This is where LC call number filing gets a little tricky. The cutter is filed as if it had a decimal point after the first number. So if the cutter is B741, it is understood to be actually B7.41 and thus it would be filed before a similar number with B8 as the cutter. Remember that the decimal point will not necessarily appear in the call number. It is simply understood to be there. Not understanding how this works can lead to confusion about looking for books on the shelf.
Another filing rule to remember is "nothing before something." This means that a book with the call number BF/1/C2 will come before BF/1/C2/1987 because the first book has no date. Otherwise everything in the call number is the same. But remember, the entire first part of the call number must be the same before you use the "nothing before something" rule.
Second Floor (Main Floor)
Continuing with resources on the second floor of the library, the reference collection is composed mainly of books, such as encyclopedias and dictionaries, and these may not be checked out of the library but are for in-house use only. The reference collection is arranged in Library of Congress classification order. All indexes in the library are located in the reference area and paper indexes are located on index tables arranged by subject. Access to the online public catalog, online/CD-ROM indexes, and Internet access via Netscape are available through the library's computer network using public access PC's in the reference area.The reserve collection is located at the circulation desk on the main floor. This collection consists of items with limited circulation periods in a closed stack area; it is typically composed of heavily-used items placed on reserve for particular classes. It is organized alphabetically by the last name of the professor who placed the item on reserve.
The map collection is also located in the reference area. The map catalog booklet located near the collection provides access to it. The leisure reading collection consists of a group of newly acquired books on important and interesting topics and is located near the front door of the library on the main floor. These books are not organized in any particular order but simply placed on the shelves for you to browse.
The thesis collection consists of theses written by St. Mary's University graduate students. It is located near the end of the reference collection and is organized by the Dewey Decimal system which is a subject-order based system similar to the Library of Congress (LC) classification. The Dewey Decimal system is probably familiar to you since most school libraries and public libraries use this system. Currently, the theses are being recataloged into LC classification though this project may take some time to complete.
St. Mary's doctoral dissertations are integrated into the circulating book collection on the third floor. All of these dissertations can be located in the online catalog by doing a subject keyword search using the words "St. Mary's University Dissertation." Another second floor collection is the Marianist Collection which consists of books and journals by or about the Society of Mary located in a special room located on the south wall of the Library.
The Academic Library has been a selective depository for U.S. and Texas government documents since 1964 and the government documents collection on the second (main) floor contains over 150,000 items. Government documents are arranged in SuDoc (Superintendent of Documents) call number order. An even more detailed explanation of SuDoc classification is available here from the University of Denver.
Briefly, SuDoc classification is not subject-based like Dewey and LC but is agency-based. That is, the documents are arranged by the agency which produced them rather than by the subject they cover. Below is a table with some examples of the agencies and their classes. If you compare these to the classes in Library of Congress classification, you can see there is no commonality.
Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) Classification
| Class | Agency |
| A | Agriculture Department |
| C | Commerce Department |
| D | Defense Department |
| ED | Education Department |
| EP | Environmental Protection Agency |
| FHL | Federal Home Loan Bank Board |
| FR | Federal Reserve System Board of Governors |
| GA | General Accounting Office |
| GP | Government Printing Office |
| HH | Housing and Urban Development Department |
| I | Interior Department |
| J | Justice Department |
| Ju | Judiciary (Courts of the United States) |
| L | Labor Department |
| LC | Library of Congress |
| NAS | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| P | United States Postal Service |
| Pr | President of the United States |
| S | State Department |
| SI | Smithsonian Institution |
| T | Treasury Department |
| TD | Transportation Department |
| VA | Veterans' Administration |
| X, Y | Congress |
The reference desk is located on the main floor in the reference area. Reference librarians are on duty at the reference desk nearly all the time the library is open. When you have questions about library research, ask a reference librarian at the reference desk. Student workers at the circulation desk are trained to check out and reshelve books and reserve materials and cannot answer your questions about how to use the library.
Ask the Librarian
The reference librarian will teach you how to use the library and its resources and help you find the information you want. The librarians in the Academic Library, like all librarians, are dedicated to the work of organizing, storing, and retrieving information. The librarian will not write your paper for you but will help you find the information you need to write your own paper.
There are some things you can do to get a better result from your reference question. Tell the librarian exactly what you are working on up front. If you aren't clear about what you need, it is less likely you will get it. Also, if your professor has asked you to find a particular book or journal article, try to get a good citation. It is very difficult for the librarian to find something if you are not sure what it is yourself. If you don't find what you want after your initial contact with the librarian, be sure to follow up and ask for more help. Don't be afraid to ask your questions. The librarian is not there to judge you in any way, he or she is there to help you locate the information you need.
Microfilm and microfiche journals are also arranged alphabetically by title and are located in cabinets in the center aisle of the first floor. Film/fiche readers/copiers can be found near each set of cabinets. The latest unbound issues of newspapers and some popular magazines are located in the leisure section near the front of the library on the first floor.
The Media Viewing Room (a classroom with multimedia equipment) is located in this area, as is the Macintosh Computer Lab. The first floor also holds the juvenile literature collection, a collection of children's books arranged by Library of Congress classification, along with the curriculum collection, a collection of K-12 textbooks, curriculum guides, and other teaching materials.
First Floor
The first floor holds the journal collection which consists of bound and unbound paper issues of journals as well as journals in microfilm and microfiche format. Both bound and unbound issues of journals are shelved together and arranged alphabetically by the title of the journal.
Back to the Table of Contents for PB1200
This web site was created by Margaret Sylvia (msylvia@stmarytx.edu) to educate Public Justice students at St. Mary's University in the use of information resources.
Created August 1998. Last modified