LIBRARY FAMILIARIZATION
Ref: Pinner D, 1998, Communication Skills,
Addison Wesley Longman New Zealand
Limited,
ch4 pp.40-48, ch3 pp28-34
Library familiarization
What is a Library?
 Collection and storage place for information,
sources, resources and services ranging from
books to periodicals to artifacts and more.
Be familiar with the library!
• Know where to go when you need to do
more research.
• Know what to do when you need to do more
readings for your assignments/tests/tasks/etc.
• Know how to locate the materials you need.
Finding Information in the Library:
• Decide - what information you need.
• Think - what kind of info you need? Statistics? Research
data? Theories? Facts to support arguments? Diagrams?
• Where you will find this info. (books, journals, etc?) Will
you need to use the catalogue or indexes?
• Go to the Library and track down the info you need.
How the library is organized
Most libraries have the following:
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Textbooks
• Journals
• Audio and video materials
• Encyclopedias
• Reference books
• Fiction and non fiction books
• Photographs
• Maps
Dewey Decimal System
• The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)is a
system of library classification.
• It classifies non-fiction books by dividing them
into 10 subject groups represented by
figures/numbers beginning with 000 and going
on to 999.
• Melvil Dewey, an American Librarian -
developed DDC in 1876.
Non fiction
• Classified according to the DDC.
• The 10 main classes in the DDC are:
000
100
200
300
400
500
General works, general knowledge, encyclopedias.
Philosophy and psychology
Religion
Social Sc, politics, law, trade, society
Languages
Natural science and mathematics
Non fiction cont’d
600
700
800
900
Applied Sc and technology
Fine arts and recreation
Literature and rhetoric
History, Geography, Biography, and auxiliary
disciplines
These 10 divisions are again further divided into 10
sections. Each section is again further divided into 10
sections. The classification progresses from general to
specific subjects.
Fiction
• Classified by using the letter ‘F’ and the first 3 letters of
the author’s surname, eg. The Firm by John Grisham
would be classified FGRI.
• To make it easy to find the book, the call number is
printed on the spine.
• Books are placed in alphabetical order according to the
author’s surname.
• If there’s no clear author, the book is classified according
to its title.
Reference section
• The books in this section are for use in the library only.
• Books in this section include: encyclopedias, statistics,
dictionaries, directories, atlases, handbooks, yearbooks,
bibliographies.
Periodical Section
• Periodicals are generally materials published at regular
intervals such as newspapers, magazines and journals.