Caveats of call numbers: A case study in the challenges of assigning LC subclasses to liaison librarians for collection management

This case study examines the longstanding reliance on Library of Congress (LC) call numbers as a managerial tool for collection development, assessment, and workflow coordination in academic libraries. While call numbers have traditionally provided a convenient proxy for disciplinary boundaries—supporting tasks such as vendor approval plans, donation review, and subject librarian assignments—this paper argues that such reliance obscures the inherently multidisciplinary nature of library collections and introduces inefficiencies into everyday operations. Drawing on both literature and a large-scale analysis of 814,518 items with fund codes, the study demonstrates that LC classification does not align cleanly with subject liaison selection practices at the authors' institution.