Finding items with K call numbers on the 3rd floor – McLennan Building - Humanities & Social Sciences Library

Until LC began to publish class K for law, a 50 year project finally completed in 2001, law books were assigned only the letter K (LC had announced that K would be law). The second line of the call number was the Cutter number for the author (or if no author, title).

The material is recognizable in the online catalogue by the existence of a space between the alpha digits.

For example:
K A2 1981 [Regular Loan] Humanities and Social Sciences McLennan Bldg

There are approximately 100 shelves of K call numbers on the 3rd floor. This material is shelved BEFORE the items with call numbers of the official LC “K” classification.

As each subclass of K was published, McGill started using it. The full LC classification schedule is now available and online at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco_k.pdf .

Subclass K (K followed by a number) is for a particular area or subject of law in general, without regard to a jurisdiction (country, etc.) Thus a general discussion of the law of contracts would be classed at K840.

Other subclasses follow, based on the country (always letters), subdivided by the subject. For example, the law of contracts in Canada would be classed at KE840, and the law of contracts in Quebec would be classed at KEQ390. (Note that the subject numbers are not always the same from jurisdiction to jurisdiction).

The last of the K subclasses is KZ for international law. A book on the law of treaties would be classed at KZ1301.

The rule for finding the material on the shelves is that “Nothing comes before something, and numbers come before letters.”

K
A2 1981

K 970
R47
2000

KE394
L38
1995

To find the item with the call number KB H64 L39 [Regular Loan] Humanities and Social Sciences McLennan Bldg, which has received an official LC “K” call number, it is first necessary to skip over the items on the 100+ shelves of K A2 through K Z1653.

In April 2007, the beginning of the official LC “K” call number range can be seen on the catalogue screen below.


The third entry on the call number browse index K10 O8715 - - Journal of Islamic and comparative law. -- is the beginning of the official LC “K” call numbers. All previous K numbers are incomplete, from the old way of assigning the books an interim law call number.

S. Rankin and L. Robertson
April 20, 2007