Installation system
The holdings of the Fachhochschule Dortmund library at all three locations are organized according to the GHBS (Gesamthochschulbibliothekssystematik). This means that the books are sorted thematically according to subject areas so that books on the same subject are next to each other on the shelf.
This form of arrangement enables subject classification, facilitates the search for literature in a particular subject area and provides a quick overview of the library's holdings at each location.
Signatures
The shelfmark indicates the location of a book on the shelf and is written on the shelfmark label, which is usually affixed to the spine of the book. The books on the shelves are arranged alphabetically by shelfmark.
You can find out the shelfmark of a book when searching via our literature search engine RiO(Opens in a new tab) . In the GHBS, it consists of three or four capital letters followed by a number. Depending on the case, further elements may be added.
An example: IBE 43/2(2)-1
- IBE - system office in the GHBS (IBE stands for "social work" - but this is not decisive for you as a user, instead you can simply use the alphabetical sorting as a guide)
- 43 - serial number in the system location
- /2 - second volume of a multi-volume work
- (2) - second edition
- -1 - copy number (the library may have several copies of a book. In such cases, the copies are numbered consecutively).
In addition, a shelfmark can end with "PB" for reference collection or "LB" for textbook (see below).