LibGuides: Book Arrangement at CCL: Music Collection

History of LCC

The Development of Classification at the Library of Congress by Francis Miksa
"The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) is a classification system that was first developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to organize and arrange the book collections of the Library of Congress."

-- https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcc.html

Library of Congress Classification

The music book collection is arranged by Library of Congress classification. The books are organized into three groups, the main class M and the two subclasses, ML and MT.

M - Music
ML - Literature on music
MT - Instruction and study

More About LoC Classification

In the Library of Congress Classification system, all knowledge is divided into 21 classes, each identified by a single letter of the alphabet (e.g. M for Music). Read more about the LoC Classification system here: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcc.html

Example of a Music Book Call Number

Book:

12 bass arias from the cantatas: an album of flute duets, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Kentfield, CA: Raymond A. Ojeda, 1986.

Call Number:

M289

.B28
C26
1986

- refers to the subject, arranged music for wind instruments

- refers to composer's last name, Bach

- refers to year of publication