TYPES AND ORGANIZATION

OF LIBRARY MATERIALS

Organization of
Library Materials
 Purpose of Organization
Organizing library materials entails properly and
systematically putting together, relevant
information sources to enable library users
identify and locate materials with ease.
Basically, Organization aims at the following:
 Saving space for the materials
 Making accessibility to library materials easy
 Making location of library materials easy so as to
save time
 Increasing the effective utilization of the library
materials
 Making the library attractive to the patrons
 Process of organization

Steps required in organizing

library materials:
Cataloguing (describing)
Grouping (classifying) into
subjects
Provide Arranging (filling)
Shelving
 CATALOGUING
Cataloging is the art of outlining the
bibliographic details towards preparing
catalogue such as author, title, subject,
reference, publishers, place of publication, year
of publication, class mark and accession number
of a particular document which is generally
termed an entry.

This is done by using laid down code or rule,

the most popular being Anglo American
Cataloguing Rules 2 (AACR2)
 The class number or location mark
indicate the actual location of books
on the shelf.
 It is arranged vertically on the lower
end of a book SPINE or on the left
lower end of the front cover where
the spine is narrow
 Call marks are made up of letter(s), a
number, cutter numbers, date and
volume number
Example of call number(s) looks like:
(a) QA (b) T (c) S (d) HV
462 1361 10 6773
.A53 .B14 .C466
.A15v.1
2001 REF THE
a is published in 2001
b is located at Reference section, c is
located at Theses section while d indicates
volume number.
 The call number(s) should be noted from
 Reference entry is a direction from
one heading to another which are of
two kinds: See reference and see also
reference
 See reference are those which refer
from a heading that is never used to a
used heading while
 See also reference refer from a
heading that is used to a related
heading.
 CLASSIFICATION
Classification is assigning a book the
appropriate subject it deals with based on
specific classification schemes such as:
Library of congress classification scheme
(LC)
Dewey Decimal classification scheme
(DDC)
Colon classification scheme (CC)
Universal Decimal classification scheme
(UDC)
Bibliographic classification scheme (BC)
 Library of congress (LC)
 This scheme group the entire body of
knowledge into twenty-one (21) classes.
 It is widely used by large libraries like
academic libraries and in use at the
university of Ilorin library.
 The LC scheme uses MIXED notation
because of the application of both
ALPHABETS and NUMERALS.
 Five (5) of the English Alphabets (IOWXY)
have been omitted and reserved for
expansion and future use.
There are other schemes of
classification for specific subjects such as
:

 Bernard Classification Scheme for the

field of medicine
 Moys Classification Scheme for law

 Refer to the note for details about

catalogue use, arrangement of call
numbers on books and shelves as well as
 CARD AND AUTOMATED
CATALOGUE
Card catalogue allows users to search for
materials manually from the card cabinet
which is arranged alphabetically in the
library
Automated or computerized catalogue
allows users to search for materials
electronically through the use of Online
Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
In the Automated or computerized
catalogue, the information traditionally
Libraries still retain the card catalogue as
a back-up to their automated catalogue
(OPAC) in case of any disaster.

Various computer software programme

are available for application towards
building up an OPAC. These include
Koha, presently in use at Unilorin library.
Others are TINLIB, ALICE for window,
Virtual, X-Library, Alexandria.
Refer to the note for details of
example of an entry in an OPAC
using Koha module, library holding
descriptions and filling
(arrangement) of entries in
catalogues.
LOCATING AND RETRIEVAL OF BOOKS FROM
SHELVES
 Books are usually arranged on the shelves in
the stack room(s) in upright position with their
spines facing outwards displaying their call
marks.
 Oversized books are placed on the lowest shelf
segment of the shelf unit.
 Directions or notice boards are mounted to
guide patrons to the various places in the
library.
 On the shelves are the shelf guides by their
 Locate appropriate shelf carrying the
book(s) of your interest with reference
to the call number(s) noted from the
catalogue
 Browse through the shelf (ves) fro left
to right to identify and locate the
book(s) of your desire
 Remove the book(s) from the shelf by
holding its spine midway
 If the book(s) is (are) for reading or
consultation in the library, proceed to
the reading tables and sit to read after
retrieval.
 Leave the consulted book(s) on the
table after use, DO NOT SHELF BY
YOURSELF.
 However, if the book(s) is for
borrowing or use outside the library,
proceed with the book(s) to the
circulation desk for borrowing process
THANK YOU