Library familiarization Ref: Pinner D, 1998, Communication Skills, Addison Wesley Longman New Zealand Limited, Chpt. 4 pp.40-48, chpt. 3 pp. 28-34

Library familiarization What is a Library? Collection and storage place for information, sources, resources and services ranging from print to non-print materials, such as books to periodicals to CDs, DVDs, films, 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. Use library catalogue system.

How the library is organized Most libraries have the following: Newspapers (print) Magazines (periodical) (print) Journals (periodical) (print) Textbooks (print) Audio and video materials (non-print) Encyclopedias (print) Reference books (print) Fiction and non fiction books (print) Photographs (print) Maps (print) Digitized information (computer access)

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 General works, general knowledge, encyclopedias. 100 Philosophy and psychology 200 Religion 300 Social Sc, politics, law, trade, society 400 Languages 500 Natural science and mathematics

Non fiction cont’d 600 Applied Sc and technology 700 Fine arts and recreation 800 Literature and rhetoric 900 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, e.g. 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. e.g. - FGRI. 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 because the books in this section are usually very expensive to replace. This is the reason no overnight borrowing is allowed from this section. 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. These may be termed serials. Periodicals cannot be borrowed overnight. Newspapers – printed almost daily. Magazines – cover many topics. Journals – specific to one field or topic.

Library A place to do quiet reading and studies. Must be a resourceful place. It must have a bank of knowledge and resources that would assist the readers or info seekers to get further information. Must have a budget to be able to get and store latest information. Must provide photocopying services within the copyright law of Fiji. (only 10% of photocopying is allowed from any printed material unless otherwise stated by the author or the publisher.) Materials photocopied can only be used for educational purposes.