Books are arranged alphabetically. The first letter of a call number indicates the general class the call number falls within. For example, our book on the Red Sox, the book is located under G where books on geography, anthropology, and recreation are classes. If there are second or third letters, these indicate a more specific class. In our example, GV indicates Recreation.
Numbers follow the letters. The numbers define the subject of the book. In our example, 875 refers to books on baseball history on a specific team such as the Boston Red Sox.
The Cutter Number is the next set of numbers but you don't have to know too much about them. (If you are curious, Ask a Librarian)!
The edition of a volume is the next part of the call number. The year of publication follows the Cutter number to indicated the edition. Our book, for example, was published in 2011.
Follow this example to see the order in which material will appear on the shelf.
(image courtesy of the University Library, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)