How to get a Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) for your book

It’s pretty simple and costs nothing for self-publishers to obtain a Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) before publication. Library of Congress numbers are helpful if you want to sell your book to libraries, since some libraries order every cataloged work.

First, apply to participate in the Preassigned Card Number Program. (Here’s the Library of Congress FAQ).

You should receive a user name and password within about two weeks. Then enter your title, ISBN, and other details into the system, and you’ll receive the LCCN within about a week via e-mail. The Preassigned Card Number Program links the book to any record which the Library of Congress, other libraries, or book vendors might create.

Self publishers can open an account here. Click “open new account” at the bottom of the page. Getting a new account takes a week or two, then each time you apply for a LCCN for a new title, it takes a few days.

The LCCN is a serially based method of numbering books in use since 1898 at the Library of Congress. Librarians use it to locate a specific Library of Congress catalog record in the national databases and to order catalog cards from the Library of Congress or from book distributors.

Upon receiving your LCCN, print it on the copyright page.

Self-publishing authors should remember to send a complimentary copy of all their books for which a preassigned number was provided. Publishers who don’t meet this obligation can be suspended from the program.

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