Shelving Fiction

Hi everyone,

There have been a few questions about how fiction is to be shelved.

We don't use call numbers for fiction, so it is shelved by the author's surname. The five letters on the spine are to help customers find the item easily. For example, an author named Jacobs and an author named Jacobson would both have a spine label reading "JACOB". Jacobs comes before Jacobson alphabetically.

If more than one author has the same surname, the authors are alphabetized by the authors' first names. For example, Anne Rice is on the shelf before Luanne Rice.

Within a single author's name, they are shelved alphabetically by title, not including initial articles (a, an, the). A Tale of Two Cities is shelved within Dickens as a title starting with "T".

An exception may be made to keep a single series of an author's books together. For example, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series may be shelved in numerical order (Two for the Dough would precede Three to Get Deadly) apart from her other books.

If you have any questions, please ask Rebecca, Laura, Lisa, or me.

Here are the Shelving Guidelines if you need a refresh.

Thanks,
John