Research Guides: IAD 401: Special Topics 2: Find Books

Finding books in our library

Use the search box below to run a quick search for books, or use the advanced search page to limit your material type to books prior to searching.

Finding books we don't have

WorldCat
Search subscribing libraries' holdings using this free version of WorldCat. NOTE: The holdings of libraries that do not subscribe, such as UMass Dartmouth and UMass Amherst, will not appear in your results. To search UMass Dartmouth holdings in Worldcat, use the Boston Public Library's (BPL) subscription version. The BPL offers free ecards to Massachusetts residents as well as those who “commute to a Massachusetts employer on a sustained and regular basis.” Search the BPL's subscription version of WorldCat.
BLC Membership
This link will take you to a list of all the libraries in the Boston Library Consortium. If you have a card (which our students, faculty, and staff can get from the circulation desk on the first floor), you can check out books from these libraries directly, just be sure to search their catalogs and contact the library before going there (especially during COVID-19, as many academic libraries are not open or only open to their community!).

Browsing our library

Marc Brown, creator, Arthur, 1996-present, Arlington, VA: PBS, animated gif, http://gph.is/1ezVjs7.

Our library uses the Library of Congress Call Number Classification System to organize our books. If you know a little bit about what the call numbers stand for, you can browse the stacks more efficiently.

Here are some call numbers related to IAD and the the assignments you're working on:

3rd floor

NA - Architecture

NA 1-60 - General

NA 100-130 - Architecture and the sate

NA 190-1555.5 – History

NA 1995 - Architecture as a profession

NA 2000-2320 - Study and teaching. Research

NA 2335-2360 - Competitions

NA 2400-2460 – Museums. Exhibitions

NA 2500-2599 - General works

NA 2599.5-2599.9 - Architectural criticism

NA 2695-2793 - Architectural drawing and design

NA 2835-4050 - Details and decoration

NA 4100-8480 - Special Classes of buildings

NA 4100-4145 - Classed by material

NA 4150-4160 - Classed by form

NA 4710-8480 - Classed by use

NA 4170-(7020) - Public buildings

NA 4590-5621 - Religious architecture

NA 7100-7884 - Domestic architecture. Houses. Dwellings

NA 7910-8125 - Clubhouses, guild houses, etc.

NA 8200-8260 - Farm architecture

NA 8300-8480 - Outbuildings, gates, fences, etc.

NA 9000-9428 - Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying

NK - Decorative arts

NK 1-570 - General

NK 600-806 – History

NK 1135-1149.5 – Arts and crafts movement

NK 1160-1590 - Decoration and ornament. Design

NK 1160-1174 - General

NK 1175-(1498) - History

NK 1505-1535 - General works

NK 1548-1590 - Special subjects for design

NK 1648-1678 - Religious art

NK 1700-2195 - Interior decoration. House decoration

NK 1700-2138 - General. History, etc. Including special rooms

NK 2140-2180 - Decorative painting

NK 2190-2192 - Church decoration

NK 2200-2750 - Furniture

NK 2775-2898 - Rugs and carpets

NK 2975-3049 - Tapestries

NK 3175-3296.3 - Upholstery. Drapery

NK 3375-(9990) - Other arts and art industries

NK 3700-4695 - Ceramics

NK 4700-4890 - Costume

NK 5100-5440 - Glass

NK 5500-6060 - Glyptic arts

NK 6400-8459 - Metalwork

NK 8800-9505.5 - Textiles

NK 9600-9955 - Woodwork

5th floor

LB - Theory and practice of education

LB 1101-1139 - Child study

LB 1139.2-1139.5 - Early childhood education

LB 1140-1140.5 - Preschool education. Nursery schools

LB 1141-1489 - Kindergarten

LB 1501-1547 - Primary education

LB 1555-1602 - Elementary or public school education

LB 1603-1696.6 - Secondary education. High schools

LB 3201-3325 - School architecture and equipment. School physical facilities. Campus planning

HQ - The family. Marriage. Women

HQ 767.8-792.2 - Children. Child development

HQ 793-799.2 - Youth. Adolescents. Teenagers

HV - Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology

HV 40-69 - Social service. Social work. Charity

HV 697-700.7 - Families. Mothers. Widow's pensions

HV 701-1420.5 - Children

HV 1421-1441 - Young adults. Youth. Teenagers

HV 1551-3024 - People with disabilities

HV 4023-4470.7 - Poor in cities. Slums

HV 4480-4630 - Mendicancy. Vagabondism. Tramps. Homelessness

TH - Building construction

TS - Manufactures

Reading call numbers

Here's a quick guide on how to read call numbers in our library (and most other academic libraries).

The first line is read in alphabetical order.

ex. This would be before the PQ's but after the PM's.

Read the second line in numerical order.

ex. This would be after PN 6746 and before PN 6747.1 or PN 6748.

The third line is tricky. Read the letter in alphabetical order then the number as a decimal.

ex. PN 6747 .S245 would come before PN 6747 .S5, because .5 in decimal is really .500!

Sometimes the fourth line will look like this and you read it exactly like the other line.

ex. PN 6747 .S245 P4713 would come before PN 6747 .S245 P8, because .8 in decimal is really .800!

When you see a line near the bottom that looks like a year, it is a year! This goes in numerical order.

ex. If there was a book just like this except the date was 2003, it would go before the 2007 edition.

You could think of a call number like a detailed address in reverse: planet, country, state, city, street, street number. Each line helps you narrow down the book's exact location!