How the Library is organised
●Library home ●Visiting the Library ●Other resources
General layout
The Library is primarily arranged geographically, by county and then by individual places within the counties. On the far wall is material about Oxfordshire and neighbouring counties, with material about individual towns and villages arranged alphabetically within. On the walls by the door is all other material, arranged by subject.
(For a diagram of the layout, click here)
The overriding principle in organising the material has been to keep together everything about a subject or place as far as possible, particularly the geographical material. This means that books, booklets and pamphlets are all interspersed on the shelves.
The county categories are:
- Banburyshire, ie material covering Oxfordshire and one or more neighbouring counties
- Oxfordshire
- Berkshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Gloucestershire
- Northamptonshire
- Warwickshire
- All other counties/areas
Material about the suburbs of a town such as Banbury and Oxford (eg Grimsbury, Marston) are not located separately. For Oxford, the dividing line is the ring road – any town or village outside it is located under its own name.
The remainder of the material falls into the following broad categories:
- Archaeology
- English history
- Historic technologies
- Local and family history
- Social history
- The English Civil War – everything related to the Civil War is together, irrespective of county/location
- Transport – as for the Civil War
There are five basic types of material:
- Books
- Journals
- News clippings
- Photographs
- everything else is designated as ‘Publications’ - these include booklets, pamphlets, journal article reprints etc.
Finding material on the shelf
Material is organised on the shelf according to the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) scheme, adapted for the specific collection in the Library. It is similar to the Dewey system used in public libraries.
The two main ways that you might want to access material are:
- Find a specific item(s) in the catalogue and locate the item(s) on the shelf: you will need to make a note of the shelf mark on the catalogue record, eg OX 929.53 LIS
- Browse a specific subject on the shelf
The following notes explain how to locate material. The label on the spine denotes exactly where on the shelf the item is located. It is made up of the following information:
For geographic (ie county-based) material:
1. The first two letters denote the county, eg OX for Oxfordshire, BU for Buckinghamshire etc
2. If the material is specific to a place within the county, it is denoted in full, eg OX Banbury
3. Then comes the classification number (described in detail below)
4. Then the first three letters of the main author’s surname, eg OX Banbury 908 BEE
For subject material, eg pottery, canals, biographies:
1. First is the classification number (described in detail below)
2. For canals or railways, next comes the name of the canal or railway, eg 625.1 Banbury & Cheltenham
3. Then the first three letters of the main author’s surname, eg 625.1 Banbury & Cheltenham DON
The order in which the numbers are filed are fairly self-explanatory, but please seek the help of the Library supervisor if needed.
Common subjects in the Library
Some of the most common subjects:
Subject section only, irrespective of location:
- Railways – 625.1
- Canals and other waterways – 626.1
- English Civil War - 94(410.1)”1639/1651”
Geographic section only:
- General studies about an area – 908
Geographic and subject sections:
- Archaeology – 902 to 904
- Biographies and autobiographies – 929 followed by the person’s surname, eg 929 Cromwell. These may be filed in the subject section, or in the geographic section if they are associated with a specific place.
- History of specific families - 929.52 followed by the family surname, eg 929.52 Dashwood. These may be filed in the subject section, or in the geographic section if they are associated with a specific place.
- Sources for local history, genealogy, public records etc – 929.53. This is broken down by types of record, eg 929.53:347.919.2 for probate records and inventories; 929.53:351.755.3 for census returns
So if you wanted to see general studies on Banbury, it would be at OX Banbury 908, or the history of the fire brigade in Tysoe - WA Tysoe 614.842.83.
Library home | Contact the Library