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1. LB001
   Library practice2 min read

   The call number as a spine label: why the catalogue starts at the shelf

   For the librarian, the call number is a book’s address. For readers of the old catalogue, it was a line of small text in a table. We decided to show it the way it looks in the stacks.

2. LB002
   Library practice2 min read

   Botany - Germany: how subject headings work

   The catalogue has 4,239 distinct subject headings. Show them all in a filter and nobody will use it. How they become a usable “Subject” filter.

3. LB003
   Library practice2 min read

   The life of a request: from request to return

   Six statuses, two sides of the screen and a few forks in the road. We follow one request all the way — and look at where it can turn off.

4. LB004
   Library practice2 min read

   Loan rules: home loan, reading room, not for loan

   An 18th-century rare book and a new genetics handbook can’t be lent under the same rules. How Katlog sets rules per collection — and how one overly strict check stopped books being issued to the reading room.

5. LB005
   Library practice2 min read

   Inside Aleph: what the holdings lines hide

   A single line such as “BOOK MPMPT BIB F 759 8660 01 20181115” holds almost an item’s entire life. We take it apart — and explain what it can’t tell you without a librarian.