How to Use the Library The books in a library

Right, every one. My name is Kathy Smith, I’d like to give you a brief introduction about the library system. Every good student should learn how to use the library. If you have to do a research project, the library is the place to go to for information.  Libraries contain books and periodicals, magazines and newspapers on many different subjects. To find the information you need, you must know how to use the library. All libraries are organized in much the same way.
   Every library houses a collection of books. Many libraries also have periodicals, films and records. All the books in a library can be classified under two main categories—fiction and nonfiction. Books of fiction contain stories that were made up by the author. Books of nonfiction contain factual material. When doing research, you use nonfiction books, because you are looking for factual information.
   All the fictional books in a library are grouped in one section. They are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the author. Many libraries also label the spines of all books of fiction with the letters Fic or F.
   All libraries have a system for organizing and classifying nonfiction books. The most widely used system is The Dewey decimal system. It was designed by an American librarian named Melvil Dewey. It is called a decimal system because it divides all nonfiction books into ten major categories. These are further divided into subdivisions. For example, all science books are numbered from 500 to 599. Each different field of science has a number within the 500 category. For example, astronomy is 520, and chemistry is 540. The Dewey decimal system provides a category for every type of nonfiction book.
   Tile best way to locate a book in the library is to use the card catalog. The card catalog is an index of all the books in the library. Information about a book is listed on cards. All the cards are filed alphabetically and stored in drawers in large cabinets. The card catalog can help you locate a particular hook, a book on a certain subject, or a book by a particular author.
   In the card catalog, each book has three cards, an author card, a title card and a subject card. The Author card is alphabetized under the author’s name. The title card is filed alphabetically according to the title of the book. The subject card is filed alphabetically under the name of the subject of the book.
   In many university libraries, they use their own Biblitas cataloguing system or the Micro-fiche system. Both of them list publications under author and title and both are very easy to use. Now, let us see the reference books. We all know that reference books make up an important part of a library’s nonfiction books collection. They contain facts and information about any subject you can think of. Reference books are not meant to be read from cover to cover. You should use them when you want important facts and information about a particular subject.
   Let’s see some major types of reference books. First, dictionaries. Dictionaries are books that list and give the meanings of the words in a language. They also give the pronunciation of words in a dictionary which are listed alphabetically. Second is encyclopedias. Encyclopedias are reference books that provide factual information about people, events, places and subjects of lasting interest. Each article is written by a specialist on the topic being discussed. An encyclopedia usually consists of a number of books arranged in a set. The volumes are arranged in alphabetical order according to the topic of each article. Letters are stamped on the spine of each volume to indicate the alphabetical rang of the topics in each volume. For instance, if you wanted to find information about the moon, you would look in volume 8 of the encyclopedia pictured here.
   Next is Atlases, an atlas is a book of maps. It may contain many different kinds of maps. The maps in an atlas are often arranged alphabetically by country or continent. Almanacs are also a type of reference books. An almanac is a book that contains recent statistics and summaries of information on a wide variety of topics. It is published annually. Information is listed alphabetically by subject.
   Indexes are alphabetical lists of names, titles and subjects that tell where information about each can be found in other publications. For example, the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature can help you find magazine articles that have been published about a particular subject. It will give you the names of publications that have carried articles about the subject, the dates and volume numbers of the particular issue in which the articles appeared.
   You should be aware that reference books may not be taken out of the library under any circumstances. They are used only in the library.