Some Examples:
Observatory Mansions, by Edward Carey
Call Number will be: F CAR
Look under the plaque that reads: B-D
Find the Call Number on the shelf and you've got your book!
(Click on pictures below for larger versions.)
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickinson
Call number will be: F DIC
Find that plaque that reads: D-E
Dickinson's books will be on the shelf alphabetical by title, with A Tale of Two Cities following other books like Great Expectations.
How Fiction is Organized
Unlike its Non-Fiction books, the Athenaeum does not use the Dewey Decimal System to organize Fiction titles. Fiction is organized by the author's last name. On each Fiction title you will find a Call Number (the book's identification number) with two parts:
- The letters FIC (for Fiction)
- The first three letters of the author's last name. For example, POE for Edgar Allan Poe; or MEL for Herman Melville
For multiple books by the same author, titles are listed in alphabetical order. Articles ("The," "An," "And") are not included as part of the title in alphabetizing. For example, on the shelf with Stephen King books (Call Number: FIC KIN), "The Gunslinger" will be shelved before "Salem's Lot".
Finding Fiction on the Shelf
Fiction books are all located in the main room. Above each alcove are plaques with letters that roughly correspond to the last names of authors found in that area.
The beginning of the alphabet is found on the side of the room furthest away from the Circulation Desk. Moving towards the Circulation Desk, the alphabet continues. Last names beginning with "S" and above begin to wrap around the Circulation Desk and conclude in the hallway behind the desk.
Fiction books containing short stories by multiple authors are located at the end of the regular fiction books. They can be identified by the call number FS.
