The Thompson Library is organized by the Library of Congress Classification system. LOC organizes history into the D, E, and F sections and then subdivided based on region of the world. We recognize that the system is inherently Western and colonial in make up, so some areas, authors, or languages are misrepresented or underrepresented.
D-DZ World History and the History of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, etc.
E-F History of the Americas
For a more complete breakdown see the Library of Congress Classification Outline.
Breakdown of the call numbering system used by the Thompson Library.
We have two options for getting a book you need that we don't have in our collection.
Check to see if it is available on the Ann Arbor campus. If it is, you can request that it be sent here for you to check out. See our Get This page for information and instructions on how to use this service.
If it's not available in Ann Arbor you can place an Interlibrary Loan request. This means that the book will come from a participating library elsewhere in the United States. See our InterLibrary Loan page for information and instructions on how to use this service.
University of Michigan-Flint