Locating Library of Congress Control Numbers for CCEL Books

Having the Library of Congress Control Numbers for each of our CCEL books is an important goal for us. Among other things, having the number of this book would allow us to download bibliographic information for each of our books which would be useful for researchers (such as seminary students) who use the CCEL. Here are the steps for locating the numbers.

1) Go to the Library of Congress Catalogs web site: http://catalog.loc.gov/.

2) Search for the title of the CCEL book using a ‘Basic Search’ or even ‘Quick Search’ feature at the top of the Library of Congress Catalog page.

3) The search results will likely list several different editions of the book. For example, “Abandonment to Divine Providence” returns 7 results.

4) The most difficult part of this process will be determining which edition CCEL has in its library. This will take some investigative work. I would suggest starting with the png page images of the CCEL book (if there are page images). Look at the title pages of the book, and determine the year of publication and place of publication. See if this matches any of the listings found in your Library of Congress search. In many cases, the CCEL book may NOT even be in the Library of Congress (if, for example, it has been printed in another country).

5) When you find a match, Click on the title of book (in green), and you will get book information. At the top of the page will be an entry for the control number (ie. LC Control No.: 34006184). Send us this number along with the title of the book.

To avoid duplication, I propose that volunteers choose a letter of the alphabet. A volunteer, for example, could start with the letter A. He or she would go to the CCEL web site and select the ‘Browse’ tab, and then browse by title, and then their letter (in this case A).

Work through the books in this letter, and find as many control numbers as possible. Email me (ktv5@calvin.edu) the results.

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions.

I’ll post the names of folks who reserve a letter in the space below.

Thanks,

Ken Verhulst