There are some very important features of books that distinguish them from other sources of information:
Comprehensiveness: academic books typically cover their subject matter both broadly and in considerable detail. They afford the reader an overview of the topic, details of its many facets, and often a history of the subject.
Reliability: books are usually subjected to a lengthy review process that includes lots of fact checking and revisions
Uniqueness: much of the information published in books is only available in books .
The Library of Congress (LC) differs from the Dewey system which you may have used in your public or middle and high school libraries. Most institutions of higher education and nearly all research libraries in the United States use the LC system. The system is an alpha-numeric system that makes researching much easier as books are located in a section of the Library according to their main subject heading. For instance you will find books by and about Shakespeare, as well as literary criticism on his works all in close proximity to each other. This saves the researcher the time hunting for each category in a separate section of the library.
The Library of Congress, the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and the world's largest library has made the following list of main classes and subclasses available on their website.
Books are organized using the alphabet from A-Z. Many business books can be found in the library's EAST READING ROOM under the following LC Call Numbers:
HA (Statistics)
HB (Economic Theory)
HC (Economic History and Conditions)
HD (Industries)
HE (Transportation)
HF (Commerce)
HG (Finance)
HJ (Public Finance)
Here is an example of a Library of Congress call number for the book Crises Leadership: How to Lead in Times of crises, threat and uncertainty.
| HD 49 .J655 2018 |
The call number has several parts to it:
| HD | represents a specific subject area - in this case it is Industries. Land Use. Labor |
| 49 | further defines this book as exploring crises management |
| .J655 | Cutter number, which is a code for the author's last name |
| 2018 | date of publication |
This call number system results in materials on related subjects being shelved in the same area. For example, if a patron goes to the book shelves to locate this book, other items on crises management would be found in the vicinity.
The ECC Library has a more than 100,000 print books and 40,000 e-books in its collection covering a wide range of subjects.
Use the Library Online Catalog to search for books and e-books available from the El Camino Library. Search for a book by Title, Author, Keyword, Subject Heading or Call #.
Step 1: Start at the ECC Library Homepage. Place your keyword (e.g. subject, book title, etc.) in the OneSearch box.
Step 2: Choose Resource Type and select Books.
Step 3: All books owned will be displayed showing Available at Schauerman Library.
