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Finding Books

Fiction Books

Description

What is a Fiction book? A Fiction book is a book which is made up or tells a story. It can be called a fiction book, a novel or a story book.

Arrangement

How are the Fiction books arranged in the LRC? They are arranged in alphabetical order under the first letter of the author's surname e.g. a book written by J.K. Rowling is on the shelves under R for Rowling.

The Fiction section of the LRC is divided into various sections which are colour-coded to distinguish them. Thus,

Junior Fiction is GREEN. The spine labels on these books have the first letter of the author's surname e.g. W for books by Jacqueline Wilson.

Teenage Fiction is YELLOW. The spine labels on these books also have the first letter of the author's surname e.g. P for books by Philip Pullman but these labels are yellow.

Senior Fiction is BLUE. The spine labels on these books have the first three letters of the author's surname e.g. D for books by Charles Dickens.

Quick Reads have an ORANGE label on their spines. These include the following series:

Graffix
Jets
Spirals
Tremors

Scottish authors have a white spine label with a RED S on it.

Remember to look in the New Titles section where all the new books are displayed. The trolley houses all the returned books so you can check and see what others have been reading. There may be just the book for you!

Finding Fiction Books

How do you find a particular book in the LRC? You can check the LRC Computer Catalogue via the PC nearest to the counter. This PC houses ALICE, the LRC' s special library software. Type in the Inquiry point on the PC, the author's name, the title, the name of a series [such as Goosebumps] or keywords such as Funny Stories. At the PC, information is posted so that you can follow the various steps. This Inquiry point will tell you if the book is in the Library or on loan, as well as all the books in the LRC by a particular author, titles or series. For further information about using the LRC Catalogue, refer to the How to Use the LRC Catalogue [LRC Guides 3] or ask the librarian for help.

For further information about Fiction books, refer to the green How to Find Fiction Books [LRC Guides 1] or ask the librarian for help.

Information Books

Description

What is an Information book? An Information book is a book which contains facts, things which are true. It can also be called a non-fiction book.

Arrangement

How are the information books arranged in the LRC? They are arranged by subjects e.g. all the football books are kept together in the same place on the shelves. The subjects are given a code number according to a classification system devised by an American, Melvin Dewey, and this system is called the Dewey Decimal Classification. The code numbers run from 000 to 999 as follows:

000 General subjects
100 Philosophy
200 Religion
300 Society
400 Language
500 Science
510 Maths
520 Astronomy
530 Physics
540 Chemistry
550 The Earth
560 Fossils
574 Biology
580 Plants
591 Animals

600 Technology
700 The Arts
720 Architecture
741 Drawing
770 Photography
780 Music
790 Games
792 Theatre
796 Sports
800 Literature
900 History and Geography

Thus, the football books can be found under Sports 796 at 796.334, books on Fossils can be found at 560, etc.

All the Information books are found in the RED section of the LRC and their spine labels contain the code number e.g. 796.334.

Finding Information Books

How do you find a particular information book in the LRC? You can check the LRC Computer Catalogue via the PC nearest to the counter. This PC houses ALICE, the LRC' s special library software. Type in the Inquiry point on the PC the subject such as Football. At the PC, information is posted so that you can follow the various steps. This Inquiry point will list all the books in the LRC dealing with Football. For any book, ALICE can tell you if the book is in the Library or on loan and the code number so that you can find the book on the shelves. If you can't find the subject which you have typed in, then think of a different or more general word e.g. instead of T Rex, type in the more general word, Dinosaur. For further information about using the LRC Catalogue, refer to the How to Use the LRC Catalogue [LRC Guides 3] or ask the librarian for help.

Using Information Books

Once you have found your information books, how do you use them? There are different ways of looking for information in a book:

1. Read the whole book.
2. Turn to the Contents at the start of the book.
3. Turn to the Index at the end of the book.

Reading the whole book will take too long. Ways 2 and 3 are much quicker. The Contents will tell you the title of each chapter and its page but the Index is much more specific since it lists all the subjects covered in the book in alphabetical order with their page numbers beside them. Remember always to use the Index when you use Information Books.

For further information about Information books, refer to the red How to Find Information Books [LRC Guides 2] or ask the librarian for help.

Reference material

Description

What is Reference Material? Reference Material comprises encyclopaedias, dictionaries, atlases and CD-ROMs.

Encyclopaedias contain information on many different subjects. There are 2 types of encyclopaedias, single volume and multi volume. Single volume encyclopaedias have all the information in one book whilst multi volume encyclopaedias contain the information in many books. Most of the encyclopaedias are arranged in alphabetical order.
Dictionaries are books containing words in alphabetical order.
Atlases are a collection of maps, local, regional, national or global in nature.
The LRC CD-ROMS are mostly encyclopaedias such as Encarta. They have the advantage over books in that they not only contain written articles, diagrams and pictures, but they also have audio and film clips.

Arrangement

How is the Reference material arranged in the LRC? This material is arranged by subject in a similar manner to Information Books and using the same code numbers.

All the Reference material can be found in the LIGHT GREEN section of the LRC and the spine labels contain the code number after REF e.g. the World Book Encyclopedia has the spine labels REF 030. Reference material also has a red spine label saying Ø Not to be taken from the library since all this material is for library use only and cannot be borrowed.

Finding Reference material

How do you find reference material in the LRC? You can check the LRC Computer Catalogue via the PC nearest to the counter. This PC houses ALICE, the LRC' s special library software. Type in the Inquiry point on the PC the title or the type of material such as dictionaries. At the PC, information is posted so that you can follow the various steps. This Inquiry point will lead you to the title or list all the type of material. For any book, ALICE can tell you if the book is in the Library or on loan and the code number so that you can find the book on the shelves. For further information about using the LRC Catalogue, refer to the How to Use the LRC Catalogue [LRC Guides 3] or ask the librarian for help.

Using Reference Material

Once you have found your reference material, how do you use it?

Encyclopaedias. Most of the encyclopaedias in book or CD-ROM form are arranged in alphabetical order. Think of a keyword for which to find the subject and be as specific as you can e.g. search under crocodiles rather than reptiles. If you can't find the keyword, try an alternative such as alligators or caimans.
Dictionaries. Like encyclopaedias, Dictionaries are arranged in alphabetical order. They are used for looking up the spelling of words and what words mean. These can be for languages or for any subject.
Atlases. Always use the index at the back of an atlas to find the town, city, place, mountain, river etc for which you are searching. The index will give you the page number and a map reference to locate the place easily and quickly.

For further information about reference material, refer to the light green How to Find Reference Material [LRC Guides 4] or ask the librarian for help.