Library Research Part II

A co-worker told me a humorous anecdote today that I thought I would share. This week her daughter (age six) is home from school on winter break. On Tuesday morning after the excitement of opening Christmas presents had died down to a dull roar, mom walked in to get her daughter dressed for an outing with the in-laws. "Oh boy!" the girl exclaimed. "Does this mean I'm going back to school today?" (She LOVES going to school.) "No," her mother said and patiently explained that school wouldn't resume for another week. "But mom, I HAVE to go to school on Thursday. It's library day!" the girl sobbed. Later that day, mom (in her infinite wisdom) took her daughter to the local public library thinking that her daughter would be quite satisfied with the larger range of books. After leaving, she asked her daughter if she was happy about the fact that she didn't miss going to the library during the week. "Well mom," the daughter replied, "I hate to tell you, but there is a big difference between this library and the REAL library we have at school. This library just doesn't have all the right books."

So what can we learn from a six-year-old about library research? The first gem of wisdom reiterates a point that I made in my last article-- schedule a specific day to go to the library and be excited about your trip. You'll be more productive than you will if you spread your research out or go with a gloomy outlook. More importantly for this week, however, is the idea of finding the right materials. Depending on your location, you may have a wide variety of libraries to choose from--everything from local libraries, community college libraries, specialized libraries (history, law, etc.), graduate school libraries, or even the National Archives if you live up by D.C.

Most book sections of libraries are set up in the Dewey Decimal system of cataloging. Topics are divided up into categories from 000 through 900. History, for example, falls in the 800s. Within each number, items are broken down to more specific topics (and longer numerical entries). Suite 101 utilizes the Dewey Decimal system of classification for each of its articles. Specialized libraries (and some college libraries) may use different forms of cataloging, but one fact remains the same: books that are similar in topic will be located near each other in cataloging.

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