Ah, I can see how shelving limits could cause problems. Most libraries I’ve gone to only fill each shelf about 3/4 full to account for that. Thanks for the insights!
Comment on Libraries are cool
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 8 hours agoSure.
Items are grouped by type (games, video, music, tools, devices, fact, fiction, for adults, for kids, comics, audiobooks) etc. Each library may subdivide things in slightly different ways, due to the fact that they vary massively in size. I think some do use DDC for some subset of their inventory. But HelMet has a lot of media and items that do no fit into the DDC system.
You can certainly find something based on how things are sorted, and if you know its there.
But since the collection is region-wide, you don’t necessarily know that. Step one to finding a copy of something is to look up what libraries currently have any. When you look that up, the shelf location is right there as well.
Many locations simply number their shelves, and then further subdivide them by a point value, and then sort alphabetically.
A Harry Potter book for example, could be on shelf 86, section 11063, by “HAR”.
Each entire shelf is usually in alphabetical order overall, too, but the numbers make it really easy to zero in on exactly where a given item can be found.
Tower@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
capybeby@sh.itjust.works 7 hours ago
Interesting! When you return a book to a different in-network library it stays there? In the US/at my library, if a book belongs to library and a patron returns it at library B, it is sent back to A.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 7 hours ago
Depends.
Items get sent around all the time. In-network, copies are interchangeable, and the system balances them out among the libraries. AFAIK there’s no particular need for a copy to back to the same shelf.
If someone isn’t looking for a certain item, it wont move again unless someone asks, or if the library needs space for something else.