How are materials arranged in the Pickering Library?
This is certainly not a bad question: in fact, the answer is a little complicated. Books and other materials in Pickering are arranged into particular sections. Check out our floor plan and the bullet points below to see our sections.
- Education = Teaching guides and other scholarly books (aka our “education stacks”)
- Young Adult = Young Adult books for ages 12 and up
- Juvenile = Children’s picture books for ages 0-11
- Periodicals = Magazines and scholarly journals (most are online-only)
- Sustainability Collection
- Reference Collection
- New this week: Curriculum Bags in the Computer Lab!
Each book is given a “call number” based on the Library of Congress Classification subject scheme, and then it is stored on the shelves in one of our sections. But our newest material, the curriculum bags formerly held at the Earl Center for Learning & Innovation, are shelved in the Dewey Decimal System.
Also, many materials come in that are somehow different. Sometimes a book is too tall to fit on our regular shelves, and so we have a special section behind our circulation desk for those. Sometimes a book is very popular or for a specific class, and so it will get stored in our Reserves location.
Be sure to take note of the location and availability status when you look up an item in BU Libraries Search. And please remember, ask us at the circulation desk if you have trouble finding something. We’re here to help!
