INDEX

How to find a Book

Find the Book

If you know the author's name or the book's correct title, please use the search computers to look for the book. They will provide you with a "category mark" and will tell you approximately where the book may be found. The category marks are much like the book's house number and will let you know on what shelves of the library the books are located.

All books in the library are arranged in accordance with the Nippon Decimal Classification (NDC) method.

These classifications therefore make it very easy to find books on the library's many shelves.

The books are generally classified widely under 10 NDC categories:

0. General Works
1. Philosophy
2. General History
3. Social Science
4. Natural Science
5. Technology, Engineering
6. Industry, Commerce
7. The Arts, Fine Arts
8. Language
9. Literature

Under these 10 categories are a further 10 for each; then another 10 categories are under each of the second set of 10, and each book is assigned a 3-digit reference number for identification.

For example, if the classification mark of a book you are looking for is 718, it refers to a book about a statue or statues of Buddha. That's because 7 indicates art, 1 indicates sculpture, and 8 stands for Buddha statue(s).

For actual locations of books using the NDC, please see the arrangement diagram of each library.

The classification marks are stated on the spine labels of books on the bookshelves. The author's initial letter is also shown on these labels. You can use this information as the indication to look for the book you need.

About the Label

  • Two-Step Label
    Step One: Category indications based on the NDC.
    Step Two: Kana indication of the first letter of the author's last name.
    Two-Step Label
  • One-step label
    Kana indication of the first two letters of the author's last name.
  • Reference Only Label
    Any book with a red label on the spine that states "Reference Only" is only for the reference and cannot be borrowed or removed from the library.
    Reference Only Label

Find a Magazine

The magazines are categorized by the classification method of the Minato City libraries.
For the actual locations of magazines, please see the arrangement diagram of each library.

Librarian

The librarians will provide support for you to look for a book or material or to find the information you need. If you have any questions regarding the library, please feel free to ask the librarian.

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