Finding Books

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Finding Books

• LIBR 1101
• Week 4 Lecture Notes

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As a UWG student, you can get

• 500,000 books in Ingram Library
• 9,000,000 books in the University System
• Millions more from around the world

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From Last WeekPhysical Organization in a library

1. All books are shelved together.
2. Reference books are separate from regular,
   circulating books.
3. Books are shelved by discipline.
4. Disciplines are sub-divided into more specific
   subjects.

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Books on the same topic are together.

• but how do I find out where that topic is in the
  library?
• Use the librarys virtual organization.
• Our catalog covers every physical item in our
  library books, dvds, cds, vhs tapes, government
  documents, maps, globes, microfiche, microfilm,
  and more.
• Use it to find all these items.

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Virtual Organization Catalog

• Every item physically located in Ingram Library
  is listed in our catalog.
• The search bar on our home page searches the
  basic catalog by default.

Conduct a basic catalog search
Enter full catalog
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Search Results Page
Note ONLY searches UWG
Limit by date, library location, item type (book,
CD, etc)
Sort by date, etc
Link to item record
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Catalog records

• Each record has the information on 1 item
• full citation information
• subject headings
• location information (where in the library)
• physical description of item
• page numbers, is it a book, DVD, etc.
• and more

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Catalog records

• A record can answer the following
• Is this checked out?
• What floor of the library is it on?
• Who wrote it?
• Is it illustrated?
• Does it have a bibliography?
• When was it published? Where? By who?

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Sample record
Citation Info
Illustrated
Subject Headings
Call number starts with Q, so this is on the 3rd
floor (stacks bookshelves)
Call Number
Current Status
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Sample record
Some of the text is blue. You can click on blue
text to find more information.
Links to other books by Nicolson
Links to other books on astronomy
Links to the next book on the shelf
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Task Find books on teaching

• If I search teach,
• The catalog scans the every word in every record
  for the word teach
• BUT! I wont get records that say educate or
  even teaching, even though thats on my topic!
• Why? The computer is stupid.
• It looks for a sequence of letters t-e-a-c-h
• Not the concept I want the action to teach

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Librarians make computers smart

• We use a controlled vocabulary.
• Only use one word per concept in the catalog
• Library of Congress Subject Headings
• (or LCSH) our controlled vocabulary
• It lists every subject term we may use to
  describe an item in our catalog.

We dont sometimes say cat and sometimes say
feline. We always say cat.
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Why use LCSH?

• Accounts for variations in language
• pop, soda, cola, coke, soft drink
• LCSH soft drink
• Accounts for synonyms
• automobile, car
• LCSH automobiles

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Why use LoC Subject Headings?

• Accounts for homographs
• pool (the game), pool (lots of water)
• LCSH pool (game)
• Accounts for different spellings
• theater, theatre
• LCSH theater

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Subject Headings are standard

• In our catalog, they are the subjects assigned to
  each record.
• Once you find good LCSHs for your topic, you can
  use them anywhere!
• in any database
• in any catalog
• in any index
• and more

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Call Numbers

• provide an address for the book on the shelf
• all books on one topic are shelved together
• When you find one good book, look around!
• Other good books are next to it.

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Call numbers

• We use the Library of Congress system
• Call numbers are assigned by subject
• Then author
• Then date
• This system uses letters and numbers
• Every book has a unique call number.

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Call Numbers- Library of Congress

• Call number in catalog
• Call number PR2976 .S333 2003
• Call number on the book

PR 2976 .S333 2003
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actually means something
PR 2976 .S333 2003

• P Language and Literature
• PR English Literature
• 2976 Basic books covering Shakespeare
• .S333 Shakespeare
• 2003 Year it was published

PR2976 .S333 2003 corresponds to the
book Shakespeare an Oxford guide published in
2003.
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Sometimes theyre long
QA 76.76 H94 G73 1998

• QA This book is in the mathematics section.
• 76.76 76 means Computer Science
• .76 means Special Topics in Automation
• H94 This book covers the HTML code.
• G73 This book was written by Graham.
• 1998 This book was published in 1998.
• Full citation Graham, Ian S. HTML 4.0
  Sourcebook. New York Wiley, 1998. Print.

All books on HTML are at QA
76.76 H94
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The good news is

• You dont need to know what they mean
• You just need to know how to use them
• How to track down a call number on the shelf
• Then look around one book for similar books

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To find on the shelf
PR 2976 .S333 2003

• Go to the P section on the third floor
• A-K on 2nd floor, L-Z on 3rd floor
• Go to the PR section in the P section
• P before PA before PB before PC, etc
• Go to 2976 section in the PR section.
• Numbers go 0 to 10,000
• PR350 before PR1000 before PR2976

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To find continued
PR 2976 .S333 2003

• Go to S section in the 2976 section.
• PR2976 .M before PR2976 .S
• Go to the 333 section in the S section
• Find the call number ending in 2003.
• It takes some practice
• Ask for help to find an item if you need it.

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Warning!

• Most people are used to public libraries which
  use Dewey Decimal system
• Dewey only goes 0 to 1,000.
• Library of Congress goes 0 to 10,000
• Hundreds (ML400) are before thousands (ML3000)

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So

• call numbers put items on the same subject
  physically next to each other
• If I find 1 HTML book on the shelf, all the other
  HTML books will be nearby.
• What if I find 1 HTML book in the catalog?
• How can I find other items on the same topic
  without going to the library?

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Libraries link similar items together
Some of the text is blue. You can click on blue
text to find more information.
Links to other books by Nicolson
Links to other books on astronomy
Links to the next book on the shelf
If I click on the astronomy link in the record
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Ill see a page like this
Click here to see items on astronomy
The library owns 140 items on astronomy
Click here to see 11 items on ancient astronomy
Click here to see 3 items on astronomy in the
United States
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Use one good item to find others.

• Just follow the links in the record!

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Important Definition

• Keyword search
• basic search, put in a few words and see what
  results you get
• Subject search
• put in LCSH and search only the Subject fields

Subject searching is better than keyword
searching!
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Subject searching is better than keyword
searching!

• Subject searching returns fewer results
• less sorting, so less work
• Subject searching returns focused results
• includes all items on that topic
• even less sorting, so even less work