English Literature

Our main print book collection on the 2nd floor of the Library uses the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system. LCC, which is commonly used by university libraries, attempts to divide all knowledge into twenty-one basic classes, which each have a single letter of the alphabet as an identifier. These are further divided into sub-classes and, within these sub-classes, numerical ranges are assigned to topics. The resulting code for each book is called a call number and can look something like this: "PR6123.A354 C674 2024".

• The letter P is for "Language and Literature" (all languages). A subset of this includes PR (English Literature) and PS (American Literature). Canadian Literature is in the PS8000s, while English-language literature outside of Canada and the US/UK is in the PR9000s.
• Within time periods (like English Literature, 1961–2000), books are sorted by the author's last name, regardless of whether they are novels, poetry, etc.
• Books in English translation are found in the call number ranges of their original language (e.g., Geetanjali Shree is in the PK2000s).

It's far from perfect, but it's helpful! Note that you can borrow up to 30 books for 3 weeks (which can be renewed twice for an additional 6 weeks if nobody else is waiting). And if you're curious about even more examples of call number ranges...

PR (English Literature)

PR1490-1799....Anglo-Saxon literature

PR1803-2165....Anglo-Norman period. Early English. Middle English

PR2199-3195....English Renaissance (1500–1640)

PR3291-3785....17th and 18th centuries (1640–1770)

PR3991-5990....19th century, 1770/1800–1880/1900

PR6000-6049....1900–1960

PR6050-6076....1961–2000

PR6100-6126....2001–Present

PR8000-8999....Compilations of Irish and Scottish writing in English

PR9200-9680....English-language literature outside of Canada and the US/UK

PS (American Literature)

PS700-893.....17th/18th century (colonial period)

PS991-3390....19th century

PS3500-3549...1900–1960

PS3550-3576...1961–2000

PS3600-3626...2001–Present

PS8001-8649...Canadian literature

If you search Discovery for the book Corey Fah Does Social Mobility (by Isabel Waidner), you'll see an entry like this, with a call number of PR6123.A354 C674 2024.

To find this book on the shelves, you'll start by getting a sense of where all the "P" books are upstairs and within those rows, where the "PR" books are. Then you'll try to find the specific row(s) that has the PR6000s and continue narrowing down your search to find the PR6100s, then the PR6123s. Sometimes this is enough for you to see the book in front of you, but you might need to narrow it down even further and work through the rest of the call number (.A354 C674 2024).

Here's what that call number looks like in-person:

And here's a video of me finding the book!