Law Library Student Aides - shelving duties
As part of your duties at the Law Library you are required to tidy and gather books left on student desks as well as shelf tidy.
Any books left on desks should be gathered up and placed on the re-shelving bay in Dewey Decimal order. CS Assistants will re-shelve these every morning.
To shelf tidy:
- Check that the shelf numbers are in the correct order.
- Books should be pulled forward on the shelf so that the spines are flush with the shelf edge.
- As you move and tidy books, check behind to make sure that no books have been pushed behind out of view.
Checking the Library location of a title
When moving returned items to the re-shelving bays, please check the individual item ID to ensure that the location for that particular item is the Law Library.
If is not, please put the book in the transit bin under the desk to be taken to the Philip Robinson Library to be re-shelved there or returned to closed storage. If you are unsure about where a book should go you can look an item up on Library Search and the location of each book should be displayed next to ‘Check holdings at …’
If you are still unsure after checking Library Search, do not move the item into the re-shelving bay, leave this with a note for the CS Assistant team to pick-up the next day.
Law Quick Shelf Tidying Guide
When it comes to shelving, your main focus is the shelfmark. This is the label on the book's spine that is made up of numbers and letters (the classification).
Let's use the shelfmark 347.16 RES as an example:
- Find the 300s
- Then find the 340s
- Then find the 347s
- Look for the 347.16s (after 347.1 and before 347.2)
- Then look for the Rs > RE > RES (after Q or RA, and before RO or T)
Now you have the following books to put back on the shelves:
- 813.54 ATW
- 346.01 WEB
- 341.444 CUL
- 347.2 HOR
- 346.8 ASH
- 300.72 CRE
- 347.16 RES
- 341.444 HUM
First you would sort the books into numerical order by the first 3 numbers:
- 300
- 341
- 346
- 347
- 813
Next you would sort by decimal numbers:
- 300.72
- 341.444
- 346.01
- 346.8
- 347.16 (although 16 is a bigger number than 2 or 6 below, it is a decimal number and lower than a whole number)
- 347.2
- 347.6
- 813.54
Lastly, you would sort by the three letters (the cutter):
- 300.72 CRE
- 341.444 CUL
- 341.444 HUM
- 346.01 WEB
- 346.8 ASH
- 347.16 RES
- 347.2 HOR
- 347.6 JON
- 813.54 ATW
The cutter letters in the shelfmark usually match the first three letters of the author’s surname, or of the title if it is an edited work.
If there are books classified by the author’s surname and there is more than one author with that name, first group works by author, then file alphabetically by first name/initials. [See red oval indicators on the image below, e.g., works by Anne Brontë are shelved before those of Charlotte Brontë or Emily Brontë.]
Keep all of the same shelfmark and author together, and file alphabetically by title. Ignore any article (e.g., The, An or A) if it is the first word in a title and file by the second word. [See yellow rectangle indicators on the image below.]
When the cutter letters are linked to the author’s surname rather than the subject of the book, you need to file all the books by that author (with the same classification number) into alphabetical order by title. [See green diamond indicators on the image above.]
If the cutter is related to subject or title, and the classification number is the same, file alphabetically by title, ignoring any article (e.g., The, An or A) if it is the first word. If the titles are similar continue to file alphabetically and move onto subsequent words to determine the correct filing order. [See blue rounded rectangle indicators on the image below; e.g., Goodhart would be followed by McCorquodale.]
For books with the same classification (shelfmark) and title, file by author’s surname.
Items with (brackets) in their cutter – shelve books with the same shelfmark minus the ( ), then shelve everything with ( ) after that using the ( ) to sort alphabetically. For example, shelve 341 BRO, then 341 BRO(Hat) and 341 BRO(Smi), etc.
Editions should be filed in numerical order from the oldest edition to the newest. Each edition should be kept together.
The newest editions of Law books on reading lists are located in the Philip Robinson Library.
If you are finding that an edition of a book held in the law library is being used or in high demand, please direct students to PRL stick and inform your Liaison team, who may need to order and buy more copies.
Volumes should be filed in numerical order. These often feature Roman numerals; if you don’t understand these, please ask or use an online tool to check the meaning: romannumerals.org/converter.
