Know Your Library

[Music] a library can be an interesting and helpful place when you know how to use it it should have been a big help to Betty but Betty had never really learned to use the library to her it was just a room full of books somewhere among all these books were the ones she needed but where which ones were they would this one help her no it didn't help a bit maybe one of the others no the library was just too confusing so Betty gave up and decided to take her troubles to her older cousin John hi John hi well what's the matter with you oh my Civics teacher told me to go get a book at the library well what about it you know very well that I don't know much about is that a library book yes well how did you get it I mean I mean how did you get the book that you wanted the same way I always oh I see what you mean well it's really very simple Betty I started by going to the card catalog yes the card catalog is where you find out what books there are in the library the cards are arranged alphabetically one way to look up books is by the subject you're interested in such as television in the same alphabetical listing you can also look up books by title of course you have to know the titles of the books you want still another way to locate books is by the last name of the author remember too that the library has other materials besides books for instance there's the vertical file arranged by subject which contains current pamphlets put out by government agencies Chambers of Commerce and other organizations you can also get a lot of help from various other sources such as the reader guide to periodical literature which is an index of magazine articles and of course from General reference works such as encyclopedias the librarian will help help you find almost anything that's in the library and advise you about what to choose the library is nothing to be afraid of the best thing for you to do is to go right over to school go to the library and get that book you need you mean now right now it's not too late when Betty got to the door of the library she was feeling rather shy but the library and Miss Nicholson looked so kind and helpful that Betty went right up to her and asked for help in getting material for her assignment Miss Nicholson was glad to help Betty explained that she had to make a report for civics and that her teacher had suggested she go to the library to find some information on the conservation of Natural Resources Miss Nicholson said she'd be happy to show Betty how to find some books and other materials for her assignment first she took Betty to the encyclopedias and got out the index volume sure enough there were some references to conservation Miss Nicholson pointed out that encyclopedias or general references are good places to begin almost any assignment because the Articles they contain are rather General and let you get an idea of the whole subject in a short time Miss Nicholson put the volume aside for Betty then they went to the card catalog first they found the right drawer for conservation Miss Nicholson looked through the cards for those relating to Betty's subject conservation of Natural Resources the card she found said see natural resources so they had to go to another drawer of the card catalog now miss Nicholson began looking for cards relating to Natural Resources there certainly were a lot of cards as Betty now went on looking through them Miss Nicholson explained that while titles are often good indicators of a book's contents some of the cards have summaries which might also help Betty find the books most directly related to her assignment Betty found three cards that seemed to have what she wanted Miss Nicholson pointed out that in the upper left hand corner is the call number which is assigned to each book so Betty wrote down the call numbers of the three books she had selected along Ong with the author's names and the titles Betty then learned how books in almost all libraries are divided into 10 main sections according to what is known as the Dewey Decimal classification system each section deals with a particular subject for example call numbers in the 200s indicate books on religion and mythology numbers in the 300s indicate books on the social sciences this is where Betty would find the books she had chosen from the card catalog it wasn't hard at all the books are arranged in order first by the main class number and then by the last name of the author as she found each book Betty glanced through the table of contents the first book appeared to be just what she wanted in fact all three books that Betty found seemed useful she added them to the reference work Miss Nicholson had put aside earlier then miss Nicholson brought over several volumes of the reader guide she explained that this is an index to the more popular magazine literature published under headings such as conservation of resources are listed the various magazines which contain articles dealing with that subject Miss Nicholson took Betty to get one of the magazines in the listing by now Betty had more than enough material to complete her assignment in good order just a little more than an hour had passed since she had left her cousin John's house hi I'm back well how'd it go oh I got some wonderful books wasn't it easy you were right it didn't take me any time at all to get the material I needed see now aren't you glad you got to know the library yes I am oh hey I've got to be getting home for dinner but don't worry anymore about me in the library it's really very simple once you know how goodbye now when Betty goes into the library she knows that The Librarian Is there to help her and that all she has to do is know how to use the card catalog how to use the call numbers to find the books on the shelves and how to find what she wants in reference books such as encyclopedias and the reader's guide to periodical literature Betty has found that a library is really an interesting and useful place when you know your library