This floor houses call numbers A - D of the Library of Congress Classification System.

The LC system organizes books and other library materials by subject, to make it easier for you to browse the shelves for materials on a specific topic. LC call numbers always begin with letters of the alphabet, and this first letter indicates a subject area. The remaining numbers and letters further divide the subject into more specific topics. The Carleton collection starts with the A's on the first floor, and ends with the Z's on the third floor. 

The Libe is an "open stack" library, which means that for all of the books, you can just come in, browse the shelves, and take down what you like to explore. If you want to check books out, just take them, along with your OneCard, to the Circulation Desk near the doors. Leave the shelving to us! You do not need to re-shelve items you have removed from the shelves. Place items on the nearest red cart and we will re-shelve them.

Carleton participates in the Federal Depository Library Program, which means that the Library receives select volumes, published by many different parts of the United States government. The library has over 300,000 printed government documents. You can check out and use government documents for research in anything from history to geology, from political science to landscape architecture. All of that information is published in many formats, including print, microfilm, DVD, and, of course, online.

Government publications are classified using a system similar to the Library of Congress Classification system called the Superintendent of Documents, or SuDoc, system. Unlike the rest of the library, where the books are organized by subject, the SuDoc system organizes items by the government agency that produced them. Call numbers begin with a letter followed by numbers with periods, dashes and slashes (for more information, see How to Interpret a SuDoc Number). To learn more about this collection, check out the Government Documents and Information guide.