Finding what you need in the Library

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Finding what you need in the Library
Introduction to Information Literacy
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• What is a Library?
• How books are placed on the shelves?
• What is a library classification scheme?
• What are shelf marks?
• What sources of information can I find in
  libraries?
• What is the library catalogue (OPAC)?
• Some important final points

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• What is a Library ? (I)
• A place in which literary and artistic materials,
  such as books, periodicals, newspapers,
  pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept
  for reading, reference, or lending.
• A collection of such materials, especially when
  systematically arranged.
• A room in a private home for such a collection.
• An institution or foundation maintaining such a
  collection.

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• What is a Library ? (II)
• A commercial establishment that lends books for a
  fee.
• A series or set of books issued by a publisher.
• A collection of recorded data or tapes arranged
  for ease of use.
• A set of things similar to a library in
  appearance, function, or organization a library
  of computer programs.

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• Definition of an Academic Library
• An academic library's purpose is to support the
  teaching and research of a college or university.
  Most academic libraries are much larger than
  village public libraries. Generally, non-academic
  material is not found in an academic library, but
  at MCAST libraries we do hold some non-academic
  material, such as fiction books, and films in
  DVDs and Video format.

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• MCAST Libraries provide
• more than 25,000 books,
• over 250 journals (30 in electronic format)
• over 300 CD-ROMs
• more than 200 Videos DVD films,
• a small collection of classical music CDs.
• and we also offer several services, facilities
  and activities

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• Finding what you need
• This is the 4th academic year that MCAST Library
  has been operating and we already have so many
  library items on the shelves in 6 libraries.
• Imagine within 10 to 20 years time how many
  library items we will be having on our shelves.
• How are you going to find the item or information
  that you need for your studies?

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• How are Library Items arranged?
• How do you find one book amongst 25,000 books
  placed on any of 1,000 shelves in any of our 6
  libraries?

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• The two main parts of a library are
• 1. Fiction books are stories and novels about
  people and adventures that are not real e.g.
  Harry Potter books
• 2. Non-Fiction books are about real people and
  things like a book about Mother Theresa or a book
  on Physics or Accounts

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• Fiction books
• These are found in a
• separate fiction section on their own.
• They are arranged in alphabetical order using
  the first three letters of the authors surname

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• e.g. books by Dickens, Charles (marked DIC) are
  found before books by Rowling, J K (marked ROW)
• The spine labels are shown below

F DIC
F ROW
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Supermarkets and Libraries are very similar to
each other! rows and rows and shelves and
shelves of items that need to be selected
carefully before buying or borrowing.
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• Arrangement of Non-Fiction items
• As in a Supermarket or Department stores, the
  1,000s of items in a Library are arranged
  according to a classification system.
• In a Store one finds food items separate from
  clothes and separate from toiletries
• Frozen food items are kept separate from cold
  food items and separate from dry and fresh foods

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• Classification system in a Library
• In a library the 1,000s of non fiction books are
  arranged according to subjects each subject
  having a number from 001 to 999
• Books are placed on shelves according to these
  numbers starting with 001 moving across from left
  to right, and up to down to 999.

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• How subjects are grouped
• A certain NY Librarian Melvil Dewey in the 19th
  century created a library classification (Dewey
  Decimal Classification - DDC) scheme for all
  subjects using a numbering system
• More than 200,000 libraries worldwide in 135
  countries count on this scheme to keep their
  collections organized so that their users can
  easily locate the resources they need.

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• What is Dewey Decimal Classification?
• Melvil Dewey divided, humanitys , knowledge,
  ideas, and artistic creations into Ten Main
  Classes spanning a range from 001 to 999
• (Book about hydraulic fluids)
• 000 Generalities
• 100 Philosophy psychology
• 200 Religion
• 300 Social Science
• 400 Language
• 500 Natural science mathematics
• 600 Technology (applied sciences)
• 700 The arts
• 800 Literature rhetoric
• 900 Geography history

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• Each major Class divides into Nine
• Divisions spanning a range of 10 to 90.
• For example
• 600 Technology
• 610 Medical sciences Medicine
• 620 Engineering and allied operations
• 630 Agriculture
• 640 Home economics family living
• 650 Management auxiliary services
• 660 Chemical engineering
• 670 Manufacturing
• 680 Manufacture for specific uses
• 690 Buildings

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• Each sub-category is further divided into
• Nine specialized Sections ranging from 1 to 9
• 620 Engineering allied operations
• 621 Applied physics
• 622 Mining related operations
• 623 Military nautical engineering
• 624 Civil engineering
• 625 Engineering of railroads, roads
• 626 Not assigned
• 627 Hydraulic engineering
• 628 Sanitary municipal engineering
• 629 Other branches of engineering

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• By adding decimals, the specialized topics
• are broken down even further
• 621 Applied physics
• 621.2 Hydraulic-power technology
• 621.204 Special topics
• 621.2042 Specific liquids
• 621.20422 Water
• 621.20424 Hydraulic fluids

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• Some Books Periodicals in MCAST library

M 663.200923
621
541.3
530
510
M 623.1
351
621.381
629.22205
690
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• Finding the number for a subject
• Specialized Library books (which we Library staff
  use) are published regularly giving numbers for
  all subjects especially new ones e.g. computer
  programs

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Finding the number for a subject

• Some of our Libraries provide charts listing the
  more important subjects in alphabetical order and
  their respective numbers

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• Subjects numbers in our web-page
• Our library web pages _at_ www.mcast.edu.mt/llrc/
  contain an alphabetical list (in English and
  Maltese) of 100s of subjects and their respective
  Classification numbers
• Use this on-line facility to find the numbers of
  subjects you need. You will also find most of
  these numbers printed on the actual shelves and
  the sides of shelves in the library.

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• Collections in our Library
• In a Supermarket the same food item may be stored
  in very different locations e.g. vegetables
• fresh (in low temperature cabinets or plain boxes
  )
• dried or preserved (on normal shelves) or
• frozen (in freezers)

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• Collections
• In the same way, in a library, books on the same
  subject may be shelved in different locations
  (collections) in the library
• Lending section books may be borrowed
• Reference books that can not be borrowed
• Audio-Visual films (VHS DVD), CD ROMs, DVD
  ROMs
• Intermediate and Junior

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• Bookshelf Marks
• Bookshelf marks help to identify the location of
  collections of books and other material, e.g.
• R Reference.
• F Fiction in English
• FM Maltese Fiction
• A-V Audio-Visual
• A full list of these can be seen on our web-site

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• Finding out what the library has
• How does one find out what the MCAST Libraries
  have on their 1000 shelves and more?
• The Answer is the Library Catalogue or OPAC
  (on-line Public Access Catalogue) found on the
  Internet at www.mcast.edu.mt/llrc/

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• What is OPAC?
• Online Public Access catalogue.
• All modern libraries now a days are making use of
  the OPAC.
• The OPAC is the library catalogue that is
  available on the internet and it can be accessed
  24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere.
• So if you need to know if the library holds the
  book that you need, if it is available and if not
  when it will be available, and many other useful
  Information go to OPAC.

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• How can you make use of the MCAST OPAC?
• On the Internet, go to MCAST Home page, choose,
  Library, then choose Search our Catalogue page

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• Finding what you need in our Library
• One can search using the Search our catalogue
  page by keying in a
• Any word/s in the title
• Any part of an authors name or surname
• ISBN (unique ID number for most books)
• A subject number (class mark DDC list provided)
  
• A subject heading (list provided)

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• Finding what you need in our Library
• One can also search using the Your course and
  the library page also at www.mcast.edu.mt/llrc/
• Choose your Institute
• Choose your course
• Choose your Study Unit
• Choose
• Search by Subject or
• Search by Class

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• Locating the Catalogued item
• Once an item is found on OPAC the following
  details about the book should be noted (or
  printed)
• Title
• Author
• Library
• Shelf Mark (letters only)
• Class (or subject) number if non fiction book
• Location
• Availability (is it already borrowed?)

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• If you find the following book
• Advanced methods of machining
• by the author McGeough, J.A.
• You should write on a piece of paper the Class
  number. In this case 671.35
• The first 3 letters of the Authors Surname. In
  this case McGrath, MCG.

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• So this particular book has the following label
  on its spine

671.35 MCG
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• Other sources of information
• Do not forget non-book items like Magazines and
  CD-ROMs
• Ask your lecturers
• Go to other Libraries in Malta (check our
  web-pages)
• Search the Internet using http//www.ipl.org/div/t
  een/

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• We are here to help you.
• For more information of using your library speak
  to any of our qualified and trained library staff
  who will always be pleased to help you