Wikibooks:CCO Resources

Books are catalogued using various systems to aid browsing through the Card Catalog Office. This page explains how to catalog books into the cataloging schemes: shelves, alphabetical list, completion status, and reading levels.

If you have any questions or need help, you can ask in the assistance reading room.

Shelf
Wikibooks groups together books on a related topic. To ensure books are indexed, add to a book's main page, where   is the name of the first shelf and where   is an optional second shelf. While more shelves can be added in theory, books should only be added to shelves that are as specific as possible. For example, the book Music Theory is filed on Shelf:Music theory, but not on Shelf:Music, because music theory is a more specific topic than music; the book can still be found on Shelf:Music because each shelf page also lists books on its subshelves. Cross categorization should only be used to aid in finding books that are legitimately important to several shelves and not used to simply advertise new books.

Alphabetical listing
Wikibooks maintains an alphabetized index of books. To ensure books are alphabetized, add to a book's main page. Where  is the first character in the book's name.

Completion status
Readers browsing through a certain shelf or classification often want to view books that are complete or closer to completion. In order to indicate the level of completion for a book, add to a book's main page, where   is one of the following: ,  ,  ,  , or. Don't abuse this to try to make your book more popular; misleading readers will cause them to leave in frustration.

Reading level
Whether it's parents looking for books for children or graduate students interested in furthering their knowledge, the readers of Wikibooks can be quite diverse. Indicating the target audience for a book can be useful in helping readers determine which book will suit their needs best. To do so, add anywhere on the main page of a book; a box will appear at the right-hand side at that location detailing the reading level specified. The  should be one of the following: ,  ,  ,  , or.

Practical example
Take First Aid. This book sets an example of a book that has been fully and properly catalogued. First Aid includes the following code:


 *  - Files in F in the alphabetical system
 *  - Files in Emergency medicine in the Wikibooks Stacks system
 *  - Files in Completed books in the completion status system
 *  - Files in Intermediate reading level in the reading level system

All this ensures that no matter how people browse Wikibooks, they will be able to find First Aid.

The time taken to catalog books correctly will pay off with more people finding it, reading it, and contributing to it, so don't ignore this critical step when you create a new book!