Agribusiness

How to Browse the Shelves for Books

1. Identify Relevant Call Number Ranges

For a general introduction to call numbers and ranges see our Library of Congress Classification Guide.

These are some Library of Congress call number ranges relevant to Agribusiness:

S is the call number for Agriculture. Sample subclasses and ranges:

• S – Agriculture (General)
  • S 560-571.5 – Farm economics. Farm management. Agricultural mathematics. Including production standards, record keeping, farmwork rates, marketing
  • S 589.7 – Agricultural ecology (General)
  • S 602.5-604.37 – Methods and systems of culture. Cropping systems. Including fallowing, rotation of crops, plowing
  • S 671-760.5 – Farm machinery and farm engineering
• SB – Plant culture
  • SB 107-109 – Economic botany
  • SB 183-317 – Field crops. Including cereals, forage crops, grasses, legumes, root crops, sugar plants, textile plants, alkaloidal plants, medicinal plants
  • SB 599-990.5 – Pests and diseases
• SF – Animal culture
  • SF 191-275 – Cattle
  • SF 481-507 – Poultry. Eggs

H is the call number range for Social Sciences. Sample subclasses and ranges:

• HA – Statistics
• HB – Economic Theory
• HC – Economic History
• HD – Industries, Land Use, Labor
  • HD 1332-1333.5 – Land reform. Agrarian reform
  • HD 1401-2210 – Agriculture
• HE – Transportation & Communication
• HF – Commerce
• HG – Finance
• HJ – Public Finance

2. Scan Titles on the Shelves for Relevance

Remember to not only look for titles about your specific topic, but for titles that appear to be about a broader topic that your topic fits within.

3. Check the Table of Contents and the Index

Look inside individual books to get a sense of their content. The best places to start are:

The Table of Contents

This will be at the front of the book and will tell you chapter titles. Some books are better than others at having descriptive chapter titles that signal their contents.

The Index

When a book has an index (or sometimes multiple indexes) will be located at the back of the book. An index is a list of names, concepts, or keywords and the pages of the book where content on that topic can be found. Constructing a high quality index is labor-intensive, so not all books have them or have equally extensive indexes. A good index, however, is incredibly helpful for finding information.