You can quiz yourself on Library of Congress call number order at: /reitzj/lcquiz/lcquiz.html. In call numbers without a year of publication, the volume number appears on the fourth line.

For works published in more than one physical volume (for example, a multi-volume encyclopedia), the volume number appears on the fifth line of the call number, following year of publication, with the lower volume number ( v.1) shelved to the left of the higher volume number ( v.2, then v.3, and so on). An earlier edition is shelved to the left of a later edition of the same work. The fourth line of an LC call number usually gives the year of publication ( example: 2003). G43, etc.) are shelved to the left of all. When two books have the same letter to the right of the decimal point, the book with the smaller decimal number following the letter is shelved to the left of a book with a larger decimal number following the letter. G at the beginning of the third line is shelved to the left of a book with. Items with call numbers that are the same up to the third line are shelved alphabetically according to the letter to the right of the decimal point. The third line of an LC call number begins with a decimal point, followed by a letter and then a number. Please note that in Dewey Decimal Classification, the largest number is 999.99. If the letters on the first line of the call number are the same for two items, then the item with the smaller number on the second line is shelved to the left of the item with a larger number on the same line ( example: PR 22 before PR 220 before PR 2201). The second line of an LC call number is always a number from 1 to 9999, which may have a decimal extension ( example: 9999.5) but extensions are less common in the LCC system than in Dewey Decimal Classification. For example, in the section for the Ps (language and literature), the correct sequence is P, PA, PB, PC, PD up to PZ, followed by Q, QA, QB, QC up to QZ (the section for the sciences) and so on.

When a call number begins with a single letter ( P) that is the same as the first letter of a second call number beginning with a double letter ( PA), then the item bearing the call number with the single letter is shelved first (to the left) because in the United States, library materials are arranged in the way the English language is read: from left to right and top to bottom.

The first line can be either a single or a double letter. Library of Congress call numbers usually have four or five lines or elements: P

All fall down by helen oxenbury