Library Skills
Although books may seem antiquated in the
electronic age, they are still an invaluable source for research information, as
well as pleasure reading. Everyone should be familiar with the basic lay-out of
a library.
Important Points:
- To look up a TOPIC:
- You can go straight to
an encyclopedia – check the volume whose spine has the letter your topic
begins with (check the “T” volume of the encyclopedia for information on
“trains”)
- You can use a card
catalog or online book catalog to see what books in the library deal with
that topic. Ask your librarian for help with this.
- To look up a PERSON:
- Search by the LAST
NAME.
- You can go straight to
an encyclopedia – check the volume whose spine has the letter your topic
begins with (check the “R” volume of the encyclopedia for information on
“Paul Robeson”)
- You can use a card
catalog or online book catalog to see what books in the library deal with
that person. Ask your librarian for help with this.
- Libraries arrange their
books in one of two ways (depending on the types of books) – either
ALPHABETICALLY by the author’s last name, or by CALL NUMBER.
- Call Numbers:
- The codes the library
puts on the spines of the books to help people find what they’re looking
for.
- Books are shelved
according to the call numbers.
- Combination of letters
and/or numbers.
- If there are only
letters, the book is probably either fiction (FIC) or reference (REF)
- If there are numbers,
the numbers are part of the Dewey Decimal Classification system (see below),
and the letters are the first part of the author’s last name.
- Dewey Decimal
Classification (DDC) - Formerly known as the Dewey Decimal System, this is a
method for putting books into categories to make them easier to sort and
find.
- Books are often divided
by genre, or the style of writing.
- The three main
divisions are "Fiction", "Non-Fiction", and “Reference”
- Usually, non-fiction
books are classified using the DDC.
- Fiction books are often
sub-divided into categories (or sub-genres) such as "Mystery", "Science
Fiction", and "Children's Literature".
- Reference books use a
combination of the DDC and sub-genres
- Within a sub-genre, books
are usually placed on the shelf in a specific order.
- They are
alphabetized by the author's last name.
- For example, a book
by Stephen King would go on the shelf before a book by Spider Robinson,
but after a book by Orson Scott Card (K comes before R in the alphabet,
but after C).
- Similarly, a book by
Michael Crichton would go after a book by Orson Scott Card (both last
names start with C, so we look at the second letter of the last name; Ca
comes before Cr, because A comes before R in the alphabet).
- A book by Stephen
King would go before a book by Stephen Kinge (when one word is spelled the
same as another but has additional letters, the shorter word goes first,
alphabetically).
- If there are two
authors with the same last name, the person placing the book on the shelf
then refers to the authors' first names.
- For example, Stephen
King goes before Tabitha King (since the last names are spelled the same
way, we start with the first letter of the first name, and S comes before
T in the alphabet).
- Similarly, Stephen
King would go before Steven King (since the last names are spelled the
same way, we start working through the letters of the first names; Step
comes before Stev, because P comes before V in the alphabet)
- If a single author has
more than one books, the books are often arranged alphabetically by the
title of the story, though sometimes they are arranged by the original
copyright date instead.
- Arranging by
copyright date allows books in a series to be placed in the proper order
on the shelf, even if they titles don't follow each other alphabetically.
- For example, if we
had copies of Stephen King's books The Gunslinger and The
Drawing of the Three, they could be organized by title (Drawing
before Gunslinger, since D comes before G and we should ignore
articles at the beginning of titles [articles include The, A, An]).
- We could also
organize those books by copyright date, which would put The Gunslinger
first and The Drawing of the Three second (Gunslinger's
original copyright date is 1982, which we find on the publication
information page, and Drawing's original copyright date is 1987).
Since these particular books are part of a series, this might be a better
way to shelve these books.