German 272: The GDR from Both Sides of the Wall

Organization

Books in the St. Olaf libraries are organized using the Library of Congress classification system (LCC).  Each book is assigned a unique number that co-locates it with other books on the same subject.

The D Schedule: World History (located on level 5 of Rolvaag)

Examples:

German History in Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation (by William Hagen)
DD175 .H35 2012

DD175 (subject designation of method of study)
.H35  (initial letter that refers to the author)
2012 (date of publication)

The Oxford Handbook of German History
DD69 .O94 2011

DD69 (subject designation or method of study)
.O94 (initial letter that refers to the author but in this case refers to Oxford since there are multiple authors)
2011 (year of publication)
 

By the way, Germanic literature is kept in a separate place (PT section on level 2 of Rolvaag) and specifically PT1 - PT4897.

Classification

Aside from assigning a call number which co-locates material on the same subject, the Library of Congress also created a vocabulary of subjects that get assigned to every book record in the online catalog.  Since these subjects (subject headings or subject links) are systematically applied to items that are added to the catalog, they provide a powerful way of uncovering everything in the catalog on a particular topic.

Examples

Germany -- History
Germany -- History -- 20th century
Germany (West) -- History
Germany (East) -- History
Germans -- Europe, Central -- History
Germany -- Foreign relations