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Lost in the Stacks,
or Call Number Errors
by Kris Stacy-Bates
This is an old-timer’s guide to reasons patrons need our help finding items on the shelf. I thought I’d better share this wisdom while it can do some good, before students completely stop being willing to read anything in print.
Dewey Really Need To Learn LC?
Perhaps the most common LC call number problem—reading the first number as a decimal rather than an integer. Would be worse without Library 160.
Font of (Incorrect) Knowledge
The fonts used online or on spine labels keep patrons from distinguishing an “I” from an “l” from a “1.” Switching to Comic Sans would help, but might inspire students from the College of Design to arson, so is not recommended.
Flaking Out
Call numbers marked on the spine of an old volume have flaked off with years of use (or disuse), until the former QH1 reads as Q111.
Invisible Ink
The call number is not visible from the aisle, either because it would not fit on the spine or because the book is oversized and shelved spine-downward. Yes, the student could have checked the volume based on neighboring items, but somehow this is more effort than hiking to the Main Desk for help.
Dewey Really Need To Learn LC?
Perhaps the most common LC call number problem—reading the first number as a decimal rather than an integer. Would be worse without Library 160.
Font of (Incorrect) Knowledge
The fonts used online or on spine labels keep patrons from distinguishing an “I” from an “l” from a “1.” Switching to Comic Sans would help, but might inspire students from the College of Design to arson, so is not recommended.
Flaking Out
Call numbers marked on the spine of an old volume have flaked off with years of use (or disuse), until the former QH1 reads as Q111.
Invisible Ink
The call number is not visible from the aisle, either because it would not fit on the spine or because the book is oversized and shelved spine-downward. Yes, the student could have checked the volume based on neighboring items, but somehow this is more effort than hiking to the Main Desk for help.
Right Call Number, Wrong Library
The patron has found a call number from another library or WorldCat. If we own the book at all, ISU has a different call number for it.
International Tome of Mystery
The patron has indeed found the right call number, but doesn’t recognize the item because the spine title is different from what they expected. Particularly likely to occur for journals that have titles in multiple languages, with only one of them on the spine.
The Handwriting off the Wall
The patron cannot find the call number because of inability to read their own handwriting—or, more often, the handwriting of the professor who jotted it down.
The Car Engine Call Number
Not limited to TL1 through TL 484, this is the classic situation of the problem that goes away once the expert is on hand to check for it. In the case of a call number search, the book seems to magically reappear on the shelf thanks to the library staff member’s supernatural book-calling powers.