Entries are placed into the catalogue following rules specified in the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. These rules ensure consistency in the form of an entry.

ENTRIES

• Fiction books are catalogued and placed on the shelves with the emphasis on the author's last name, or the titls (in the absence of an author or too many authors).

• Non-fiction items are put into specific classes according to the Dewey Decimal Classification System. This
  classification scheme is not based on specific subjects, but rather, on how the subject is treated or its discipline. (Items on drugs can be found in several places on the shelves – Psychological effect of drugs, sociological effect of drugs, physiological effect of drugs, and Pharmacology etc.)

• The Library of Congress also has a classification system that is much more complicated than the Dewey
  Decimal Classification System. It is used mostly in large public libraries, special libraries and university libraries where there are large collections of specialized books.
  

SUBJECT HEADINGS

• To make certain that appropriate and accurate subjects are used, they are chosen from the Sears List Subject Headings. A common subject heading will reveal all items that are available in your library in that area.

• The Library of Congress also uses subject headings, but they are more specific than Sears headings and are
  used in larger libraries. Sears provides most school libraries with the depth of subjects that are required.

• MARC records ( Machine Readable Cataloguing) are an electronic form of cataloguing. A specific format and specific rules are followed, so all records are created in the same way. This allows many different libraries to share their cataloguing.    Example of a MARC Record