Guidelines for returning books to the shelves

Books are placed on three different carts depending on where they go in the library.

Two carts for materials in the Main Room:

One is for fiction, story collections, special ed. and professional books. (Prefixes: FIC, SC, SE, PRO)

One is for non-fiction books with numbers but no prefixes.

One cart is for materials in the Reference Room. (Prefixes: REF, TXT, FRE, GER, SPA, ATL, LIT)

Please pay attention to the prefixes they will tell you where materials are located in the library.

FIC – Books with this prefix are in the low shelves in the middle of the main room. Sometimes you will still find a book with the prefix MYS or SF. These are remnants of a former way of filing mystery and science fiction from other fiction books. Please bring these to Mr. Kaun and we will get the labels changed. Sometimes you will find a fiction book with just the author’s name on the label. Please bring these to Mr. Kaun as well.

SC – These are collections of stories by many authors and are found at the very end of all the fiction books (after FIC ZZZ). These are generally filed by the name of the editor or compiler. Occassionally you will find a book of short stories all by one author which has the prefix SC. These need to be changed to FIC so bring them to Mr.Kaun.

SE – This prefix stands for special education and is usually found on children’s books or adapted texts. These books are kept on top of the last bookcase in the fiction area (above the story collections). Please note that they are found on both sides of the counter. Please file the non-fiction books in Dewey Decimal order. The fiction SE books are on the other side of that countertop. All SE books should have a light blue tape strip at the base of the spine.

PRO – These are kept in the Teacher Area at the far end of the main room from the entrance. The prefix stands for professional materials and all of these books should have a strip of orange tape at the base of the spine.

OS – Oversized books are found in the Teacher Area also. They should have a strip of red tape at the bottom of the spine.

REF – Reference books are kept in the Reference Room (where the computers are) and are arranged in order by the Dewey Decimal System. They have a strip of yellow tape at the base of the spine. There are a few special collections in the Reference Room which have their own prefixes:

TXT – These are textbooks. Some of these are kept behind the desk and are usually returned to the desk by students. Others may be put on the reference cart as well, they generally go on the top shelves of the last section in the reference area (near the sign that says “Student Resources) Textbooks should have both yellow and black tape at the base of the spine. Do not file them with the regular reference books!

SPA, GER, FRE – These are foreign language books in Spanish, German and French and are found under the textbooks previously mentioned. They should have a strip of orange tape at the base of the spine.

ATL – This is the prefix for atlases which are kept in the atlas stand (at the end of the Reference Room under the windows). Do not place atlases which don’t have the prefix in this stand. These books should have both yellow and orange tape at the base of the spine. Try to match the location of atlases with the label on the front of the shelf.

LIT – These short booklets include Cliffs Notes, SparkNotes, etc. and are kept in boxes on the top of the Pamphlet Files (under the windows at the end of the Reference Room). They are kept in order by author’s name.