Library of Congress Conversion at Hennepin County Library

The merger of Hennepin County Library and Minneapolis Public Library in 2008 brought together two large and very diverse collections that were organized using two different but well-established classification systems — Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress. Classification systems are used to organize non-fiction materials.  Hennepin County Library’s fiction collections are in alphabetical order by author’s name.  

In 2012, the decision was made to organize and label all system materials using the Library of Congress classification system. Hennepin County Library decided to go with Library of Congress because it would save money in the long term instead of having two classification systems.  The majority of the library’s unique titles are already classified Library of Congress. Other advantages of Library of Congress: it is more inclusive and it is more efficient and specific, allowing patrons to find materials more quickly because call numbers are shorter.