Throughout the long history of the library, there have been many examples of methodical approaches to creating techniques, tools and knowledge that contribute to creating the library profession as we know it today. Collection arrangement and book labelling represent skills that are built into the very foundations of librarianship.With the opening of each new library, with collection merging or moving, or when building open access to a collection from scratch, librarians continue to question the methods they inherited. Librarians have to have a good understanding of the details and functions of book labelling in order to make an informed decision on how much of the work required for book labelling and re-shelving can be saved or replaced by other methods of locating and presenting documents.