Know Your SFPL Call Numbers - 708

According to the Dewey Decimal System, the call number 708 generally consists of works about galleries, museums, and private collections of Fine Arts.

Works about the business aspects of running a gallery are also included in this section (How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery.)  There are books about individual collectors - for instance books about Peter Selz, Charles Saatchi and the Rockefellers all get the call number 708.0092 (the .0092 refering to biographies of Americans).

The call numbers 708.1 through 708.9 are all about museums and museum collections according to their geographical location.  They use the same numbering system as 759 series (paintings and painters), or the 784.49 series (folk songs) to designate each location.

708.1 American museums
708.2 British museums
708.3 German museums
708.4 French museums
708.5 Italian museums
708.6 Spanish museums
708.7 Russian museums
708.8 Scandinavian museums
708.9 Dutch, Belgian and Balkan Museums and Museums outside of America and Europe

There are finer subdivisions within these numbers as well.  For example, 708.1471 is the call number for New York City museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art.  More importantly for us, 708.1946 is the call number for San Francisco museums like the Legion of Honor, De Young and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Remember that the books in this section are about the institution and its permanent collections.  Traveling exhibitions will be cataloged according to their subject matter of the exhibition.

Browse both the circulating, oversize and reference sections of collection.  You can also browse this collection through the online catalog.

Reading list

708.0068 W7291h
How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery by Edward Winkleman (Allworth Press, 2009).

708.0092 R5909L
America's Medicis: The Rockefellers and Their Astonishing Cultural Legacy by Suzanne Loebl (Harper, 2010).  

708.0092 Sa12m
My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic: Everything You Need to Know About Art, Ads, Life, God and Other Mysteries, and Weren't Afraid to Ask... (New York : Phaidon, 2009).  

708.0092 Se499k
Peter Selz: Sketches of a Life in Art by Paul J. Karlstrom with Ann Heath Karlstrom (University of California Press, 2012).

708.1471 M521m
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012).  

708.1946 Am68m
Museums of San Francisco: A Guide for Residents and Visitors by Margaret C. Amorella (Westholme, 2007).  

708.1946 L5246d
Legion of Honor: Selected Works by Renée Dreyfus (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 2007).