Locating material in the library
The Library's books are in five different classification schemes:
- the alphabetical Library of Congress Classification (newer material)
- the Seeley's numerical in-house system (older material - see below for the full classification scheme).
- the Mezzanine classification scheme
- the Land Economy Collection
- the Latin American Studies classification scheme.
If the classmark of the book you are looking for begins with a letter (eg. A, BX), then it will be in the Library of Congress sequence. If the classmark begins with a number (eg. 24.3), it will be in the other sequence. Brief outlines of both schemes can be found at the end of the stacks.
In addition there are various other resources available through the library:
Closed stack material
Most books are on open access in the library; however, some material is shelved in closed stacks. On the catalogue, these items will be listed as needing to be requested at the issue desk.
Pamphlets: If the classmark begins with PAM, then the item is a pamphlet. Pamphlets can only be used in the library. The most frequently used items are held at the desk; others are stored in the basement and will be fetched on request.
Theses: The Seeley holds a reference-only collection of MPhil and prize-winning undergraduate dissertations, all catalogued online. Please ask at the desk if you wish to consult one of these titles.
Journals: Please ask at the desk if you wish to consult any of our journals.
Ebooks and ejournals
There are links to ebooks and ejournals in the iDiscovery catalogue. For more information on accessing ebooks and ejournals visit the University Library's eresources@cambridge page.
Seeley In-House Classification
Older material is classified into an in-house scheme. The first element denotes a subject or regional designation and the second number is a topical subdivision, e.g., 30.11 = American Civil War; the third element is simply a running number assigned to the book on its arrival (so duplicate copies of the same title may have separate locations if they arrived at different times).
The full classification scheme is as follows:-
Reference
- Cambridge and other reference works
- Atlases, maps and other reference works
- Essays, etc
- Ancient History
- European History (general)
- Medieval European History
- Modern European History
- Eastern and African History
- Theses
- British Economic and Social History
- Social and Political Thought
- International Affairs
- British History
- Official Publications
- Periodicals
- Learned Societies
- not used
- Palaeography
- History of Sciences
- Military History
- Pamphlets
- Theology
- Not used
- Art and Literature
- not used
- not used
- not used
- not used
- not used
- American History
PAM. Pamphlet Collection
Mezzanine
The mezzanine holds older POLIS and Sociology material that have an in-house classmark. If a book appears on iDiscover with the location 'Seeley Library: Mezzanine' then it will be located on the first floor of the library.