Astronomy

Books and E-Books

The best way to find books and E-books is to use the Primo Search tool. This tool searches many of our resources, including the UF Libraries catalog. Click on the pink icons below to learn more about using Primo Search.

View the accessible version of this interactive content

For additional information about using Primo Search, here is a video tutorial about find both books and articles through Primo:

Locating Items Using Call Numbers

A call number is a series of numbers and letter that you see on the spine of a book and in the online catalog. A call number is used to organize catalogued library materials to be easier to locate on library shelves, and also to find items of similar subject areas together.

At the Smathers Libraries, we use the Library of Congress classification system for call numbers, which looks a lot different from the Dewey Decimal System of classification that you might be more familiar with from school and the public library.

via The Library of Congress:

New to call numbers?  Typically: 

• Arrangement is by subject area
• Shelves can be searched easily and quickly once a call number for a subject is known
• Subject areas use letters A through Z
• Letters and numbers are used to provide a specific location on the shelves
• They are arranged in alphabetical and then numerical order
• Labels are usually located on the spine or the front cover of the materials and read left to right, and top to bottom

Shorter call numbers indicate general and broad works in a subject area.  Example:  a general work about psychology would have this call number, BF1 .A25 - because the content is general and broad.

Longer call numbers indicate works that are more specific or specialized.  Example:  a book about developmental psychology would have this call number, BF712 .A36 - because the book's content is about a specific field of psychology.

Parts of the Call Number: BF76.7 .P83 2020

BF76.7 - the subject area where the book is located

.P83 - additional information about the book, sometimes more than one line

2020 - year of publication

Anatomy of a Call Number