Room Bays 'Open Shelves' is a term used by the Printed materials collection to describe the material arranged in various locations in its Reading Room. The purpose of this guide is to explain what may be found in the bays .
Guides explaining the other areas mentioned are also available.
A variety of useful reference books on a range of subjects may be found in these areas. You may often find sufficient material here to answer both specific and detailed enquiries without having to search other Library catalogues for relevant material. The items on the Open Shelves are arranged according to a system called the Library of Congress Classification Scheme , where individual letters of the alphabet correspond to various subject divisions. As a starting point, below is listed the broad divisions used, together with a few examples of titles found in each class. The descriptions of these divisions are noted on the walls of each bay.