Göttingen Bound Classified Catalogue - Call-Number Groups, Overview by Subject Groups

You can also use the longer alphabetical overview of the call-number groups. The group names are in Latin, but many terms are cognate with English equivalents.

The works in the library's old stock, consisting of some 800,000 books and journals published before 1946, are listed here in their appropriate places as in the bound classified catalogue with its 30,000-40,000 classes. This provides the possibility of making detailed electronic searches similar to those made in the actual bound classified catalogue.

To look for materials on a particular subject, choose from the following overview of the call-number groups the location(s) where relevant works most likely would be found. The notes and tips for the individual call-number groups are designed to help make your searches quicker and better directed.

Examples and tips for various ways to make subject searches in the Göttingen old stock are provided at the end of this listing.

Overview

• I. Encyclopaedia / encyclopedias
• II. Historia Literaria / books and scholarship
• III. Theologia / theology
• IV. Jurisprudentia & Politica / jurisprudence and politics
• V. Historia & Geographia / history and geography
• VI. Philosophia / philosophy
• VII. Artes / the arts
• VIII. Literatura et Linguistica / literature and languages
• IX. Mathematica et Scientiae naturales / mathematics and natural sciences
• X. Medicina / mathematics and natural sciences
• XI. Sonstige angewandte Naturwissenschaften / other applied sciences

Examples and Tips for Subject Searches in the Goettingen Old Stock

1. Searches using the call-number-group overview

Example: Material on the history of Ireland
Search path:  →  Historia et Geographia  →  H BRIT P III bei Historia Britanniae Particularis
or
Search path: Strg+f  Irland  →  [after a few non-historical hits] HLP VI (history of universities)  →  JUS STAT Hiberniae (Recht)  →  H BRIT P III (Geschichte) etc.

Example: Works about amphibians
Search path:  →  Mathematica et Scientiae nataurales  →  ZOOL VIII in Zoologica
or
Search path: Strg+f  Amphibians  →  ZOOL VIII in Zoologica

2. Search using subject words

Since the cataloging is of locations in the system rather than of individual titles, it is possible that in complex places, titles can be found that do not fit the theme, e.g., in a title search in economics of a country or region or political constitution and / or cultural history and social history (see Irish example below).

On the upper entry-line (to the left of the question mark), the setting must be set at "all words (ALL)." In the query line, just below (to left of the "search" button), enter the key "sub" followed in arbitrary order by the words to be searched for (e.g., technical terms, geographical names, and personal names), using ? to truncate as need be. (The hits may actually differ in number from those values given here if the Library has since made entry changes.) To be sure to get only works from the old holdings, one must limit the year of publications to the time range 1450-1945 (Help) or to a more restricted range within this (e.g., 1700-1800 for only works from the 18th century) by adding "and jvu 1450-1945" (or other desired time-period) in the same entry box. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of hits in a thematic search (sbj) with both subject search terms and title key words (see 3., below).

Example: LLiterature on the Falklands
Search path: SUB Falkland Islands  →  142 (91) hits (through synonym indexing, various terms will lead to almost the same results, as in this case for the terms Falkland Islands, Islas Malvinas, Isles Maidenland, Jungfernland, Malouines, Malvinen and Malwinen lead to the same results)

Example: Literature about Ireland

Search path:	sub ireland and jvu 1450-1945	→	10 (24,434) hits
	sub ireland history and jvu 1450-1945	→	1 (1,340) hits
	sub ireland economics and jvu 1450-1945	→	0 (15) hits (including literature on political constitution, economics)
	sub ireland church history and jvu 1450-1945	→	1 (89) hits

Example: Literature on the nightshade family of plants
Search path (all with "and 1450-1945"): "sub nachtschattengewächse" or "sub solanazeen"  →  1 (11). But for solanaceae 1 (17), for potatoes 2 (21), and for nightshade 5 [all extraneous] (0) hits. Thus, for certain areas, it is advisable to use synonyms and near-synonyms as well as considering using the German terms.

3. Literature search using subject headings and title keywords

If a larger pool of hits is desired, the same search terms as above can be used but using "subject" (SBJ) rather than "all words" (ALL) in the upper entry line (drop-down menu. Normally, this will produce a larger number of hits (number of sbj is hits given in parentheses in the above examples). The additional titles might be from works listed in another category or from one of a number of other sources such as other older literature such as dissertations, school programs, microforms, or be old books that have more recently been acquired. Some of the titles might not even belong to the desired subject even though the word occurs as a subject heading or subject hit. For example, a search in subjects for "köln geschichte" brings up, i.a., the title "Portugal … Festschrift der Universität zu Köln." Or under "nightshade," a play and a short-story collection by that name appear as well as the botanical entries. Therefore, subject searches should use terms which are as specific as possible, or the search should be narrowed by using a combination of terms.

4. Special cases

The call-number groups Patres Graeci (PATR GR), Patres Latini (PATR LAT), Auctores Graeci (AUCT GR) and Auctores Latini (AUCT LAT) are not indexed by subject terms, since here we are dealing with an author catalogue and not a subject catalogue, with a listing in chronological order of mostly primary literature that is generally searched/sought by author's name.

With Patres Graeci and Patres Latini it is even possible to do a subject or subject heading search for names listed in these classes.

Example: Works by or about Thomas <a Kempis> = form of heading
Search path: subject heading Thomas Kempis or. Kempis Thomas or. Thomas Kemp?  →  92 (144) hits

With Auctores Graeci and Auctores Latini, a similar search is possible only to a certain extent.

Example: Editions of Caesar's De bello Gallico and relevant secondary literature
Search path: slw bello gallico  →  hits (the number of hits using the SHD category is much smaller since, e.g., translations and secondary literature are omitted in SHD but not in SBJ).
In these cases, it is advisable to look for the related locations in the call-number overview (see at 1, above) and look at the entire, larger subject for any relevant material. In the example with Caesar, this would be AUCT LAT: AUCT LAT.002.002.021.001 to AUCT LAT.002.002.021.005).