Finding Books in the Tavistock Library

As in most libraries, the documents in the Tavistock library are

organised by

shelfmark.

You will find the shelfmark for a book at the bottom of its record

on the catalogue.

You can also see if the document is located in

the book room or in

the main library.

The Tavistock Library uses a classification system called

BLISS.

It works by theme, so books on a same topic are placed

next to each other.

For example:

- A is for philosophy

- C is for chemistry

- S is for law- W is for arts- …

Most of the books in the library start

with an i because

i is for psychology

BLISS works a little like the Dewey, but uses

mostly letters instead of numbers.

You read the shelfmarks

from left to right and compare them

letter by letter,

alphabetically.

Example:

ISP BLV

IM

Example:

ISP BLV

IM

Both of those shelfmarks

start with an i.

Example:

ISP BLV

IM

So we need to look at the

second character.

Example:

ISP BLV

IM

M goes before Sso the book with the shelfmark

IM will be placed before the

one with ISP BLV

If a shelfmark includes a number, remember that

numbers go before letters.

So for example:

ISX 3ML

ISX A

The 3 first characters of the shelfmark are the same (ISX)

so we look at the 4th.

So for example:

ISX 3ML

ISX A

Since numbers go before letters, ISX 3ML will go on the shelf

before ISX A.

Finally, if two books

have the same shelfmark, then they

will be ordered

alphabetically by

the surname of the

first author.

So this graphic novel

by Katie Green will go before

the one by Paul Karasik.

And if you’ve got lots of books by

the same author(like our extensive

collection of Freud’s works)

then do check their

volume number!

If you still can’t find the document

you’re looking for… then

ask a librarian!

Thank you for reading and see you in the library!

The Tavistock and Portman Library