Library Guide: Mathematical Sciences: Subject Classification

Library of Congress - QA (Mathematics)

The UM Library uses the Library of Congress Classification System for classification and shelving. Most Mathematics books in the UC Library are shelved in the QA section.

QA 1-939	Mathematics
1-43	General
9-10.3	Mathematical Logic
11-14	Study and Teaching, Research
16-20	Special Teaching Methods and Aids
21-35	History
36-39	General Works
40	Handbooks, Manuals, etc.
47-59	Tables
71-90	Instruments and Machines
73	Slide Rules
75-76.95	Calculating Machines
75.5-76.95	Electronic Computers, Computer Science
76.75-76.765	Computer Software
99	Miscellany and Curiosa
101-145	Elementary Mathematics, Arithmetic
150-272.5	Algebra
184-205	Linear and Multilinear Algebra, Matrices
211-218	Theory of Equations
273-274.76	Probabilities
276-280	Mathematical Analysis
297-299.4	Numerical Analysis
299.6-433	Analysis
303-316	Calculus
319-329	Functional Analysis
331-355	Theory of Functions
370-387	Differential Equations
440-699	Geometry
451-469	Elementary Geometry
501-521	Descriptive Geometry
531-538	Trigonometry
551-563	Analytic Geometry
564-581	Algebraic Geometry
601-608	Transformations, Correspondences, and General Methods for Algebraic Configurations
611-614	Topology
615-640	Infinitesimal Geometry
641-660	Projective Differential Geometry
801-939	Analytic Mechanics

Understanding Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)

Why should I bother?

The keywords that I typed are already giving me results. So, is it worth knowing LCSH?

Yes, definitely! Using LCSH can help you be more effective and efficient in your search. They can help you find relevant resources that you might miss with just keyword searching.

Some advantages of using LCSH are :

identify specifically what an item is about;
identify what type of material an item is;
provide more "access points" or paths to relevant materials;
make your research more effective and efficient.

LCSH identify what a book or DVD or other item is about using a "controlled vocabulary" system. This means highly structured and specific terms are assigned to an item to accurately describe it.

The library catalog and most databases include the option to search by "subject keyword". If you ente a term in this search that is not included in the assigned LCSH, you may not get results or your results list may have few relevant records. This does not mean that there are few or no works about your topic; it just means that your term is not found in the LCSH system.

There are a number of ways to identify assigned LCSH :

from the library catalog of an item;
from the Cataloging-in-Publication information on the verso (the back of the title page);
from the record of an article in a database which users LCSH in their indexing;
from the Library of Congress website;
from the WorldCat database of library holdings around the world.