SECTIONS OF THE LIBRARY GEDS 105: USE OF LIBRARY

 A standard library is made up of several sections (departments) that enhances the works of the library and fulfils her mission statement.

 Major sections of the library include the following: 1. Acquisition Department 2. Circulation Department 3. Serial Department 4. Cataloguing Department 5. Reference Department

ACQUISITION DEPARTMENT The Acquisition department functions are:  to purchase expeditiously, and from the most advantageous vendors the materials chosen by the book selection officers.  to process the materials procured, and  to forward promptly to the proper places all materials acquired (Nwalo, 2003).

 The book selection officers are made up of users of the library. Some activities that are performed by the acquisition department include:  book selection,  carding,  typing of order,  mailing order, and  receipt of books in a library, among others.

CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT  The circulation department circulates materials to users.  They make sure that library materials change hands. Once a person makes use of the library book, drops it, another picks it up for use.

 One major task of the circulation department that is done daily is shelving of all books consulted by library users the previous day.  Library users are advised to leave consulted books on the reading desk and in the carrels.

 Prior to shelving, the consulted books are sorted according to their subject groups.  Statistics is taken of the books consulted, subject-by-subject.  The books are then arranged on the book truck in a classified order and wheeled to the shelves for shelving.

 The shelves are labeled both at the outer sides and the edges of the inner bays.  The label on the horizontal edge of the shelf bears class symbols of materials located on that shelf.

 If a shelf, for instance, in a library using the LC Scheme contains books on building, electronic engineering and mechanical engineering, the shelf guide will read:  T - Technology  TA- Engineering (General)  TH- Building; and  TK- Electrical Engineering

 Other classification scheme uses different classification symbols, for example the DDC requires knowledge of the principles and use of decimals, as the classification number is a pure notation.  Note that the LC uses alpha-numeric, while DDC uses only numeric.

Shelf Reading  Shelf reading entails going through the shelves and checking the arrangements to ensure that every book is in its proper position. The librarian or library officers does shelf reading after shelving every morning before the library is opened to users.

 Library users are in the habit of placing books in wrong positions on the shelf to achieve their selfish end. The practice is more common in academic, school and public libraries.

 The library officers carryout shelf reading to ensure that books that are wrongly shelved or hidden by the users are placed in the right place.

Registration  Every library is set up for a group of people, while national and public libraries are open to everybody, other libraries as much as possible restrict their user’s registration to the groups of people for whom the libraries were established.

 An academic library serves the interest of the academic community.  A special library serves the interest of a special group, usually few in number.  However, national and public libraries are open to all responsible people in the society.

 In an academic library, registration of users will require, name of user, department, matriculation number and course of study (if a student) among other information that may be needed by the department.  Registration in most libraries is free of charge.

 After registration, a user will be issued a library borrower’s card/ticket that will enable such user to borrow books and other materials from the library.  The number of cards issued to any user stipulates the number of books such user is entitled to borrow at a time.

 Loaning of Books  Lending books to the clientele is one of the major functions of the libraries. The circulation desk in the circulation department is the point at which a loan transaction takes place in a library.

 Only library staff are allowed entry to the circulation desk. The charging officer ensure to take records of the: record of borrower; title of book borrowed; author of book borrowed; accession number of book borrowed; the date borrowed book is due for return; and class mark of a book (if any)

Overdue  Every book loaned is renewable. A user has the right to renew the period of his/her loan by extending the date of the loan. A library book is overdue if a borrower fails to return it on the date stipulated on the book card and date due slip.

Book Reservation  Books on loan could be reserved on return for other users who have indicated interest in using them. A slip is designed for this purpose which has the name and address of the prospective book user, the author and title of the book and the date after which the book will no more be needed. If a reader returns a book for which a reserve request has been made, he is not allowed to renew the loan.

SERIAL DEPARTMENT  Osborn 1980 described serials as publications issued in successive parts, at regular or irregular intervals.  Serials are of different kinds including journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, reports, memos, etc.

 Most of the information on journal are product of research and may never appear again in any other form.  The serial department ensures that before subscription, such journal is examined if it will be a continuous issue before a file is opened for it.

 They check for duplicates and dispatch notice of new arrival to various departments.  They dispatch to some department special issues relevant to them,and that affects their interest. This is known as Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI).

 They provide details of holdings to readers, staff and other libraries. Some activities that are carried out in this department include: Journal Displays  The department ensures that all journals both latest and outdated issues are displayed either on the periodical display racks or in pamphlet boxes.

Publication of Current Contents  To make potential users aware of the contents of the latest edition of a journal, the Serial department of the library publishes current contents. Publication of current contents entails the listing of titles of articles in the latest issue of a journal and given the appropriate page references.

CATALOGUING DEPARTMENT The cataloguing department functions are  to organize the library resources with suitable bibliographic controls.  to facilitate access to the resources by clientele.  to catalog, classify, accession, and label library materials so that they are easily accessible to library patrons.

 A library may simply photocopy the content page of a journal and send out to potential users. This is part of current awareness services.

 They ensure to catalog and classify monographic materials of all classes (print, non-print, CD-ROM, and microform), using Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) and Library of Congress (LC) schedules.

 They catalog the materials through the following cataloguing facets  Descriptive Cataloguing: This gives the physical and other bibliographic details of the book (series, publisher, place of publication, date of publication, illustrations, ISBN, dimension, etc.)

 Author/Title Headings: This gives the author/title of the book. The tool in descriptive cataloguing is the AACR2.

 Subject Cataloguing: This points out the subject(s) treated by the book. A book on “crafts making” may have dwelt on distinct subject like weaving, carpentry, black-smithing and painting. In subject cataloguing, headings are assigned to all major subject contents of the book to facilitate easy access to it by readers with differing interests.

 The most popular classification schemes are Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), and Library of Congress (LC)

Treatment of New Books  Library materials at arrival at the acquisitions department are arranged on shelves. From the shelves, the new books are taken out and catalogued. Cataloguing could be done on cards or on cataloguing worksheets. After cataloguing, the books are classified using either DDC, UDC or LC depending on the scheme a library uses.

Books for Lending  Status of every book that is catalogued will be determined at this stage. This is if the book is to be loaned out, reserved or not. If the book is for lending, the date-due slip and book pocket are pasted in the back cover.

Reference Books  Reference books are used meanly within the confines of the library. Reference books are not allowed to be loaned by library users, though it can be on short loan in some libraries.  The cataloguer ascertain which books are to be classified as reference books. Some examples of reference books are dictionary, encyclopedia, abstracts, atlases etc.

 If a book is for reference purposes, no date-due-slip, book pocket and cards are required. The book is stamped “Reference only” on the title page and placed on the Reference department of the library for use.

BABCOCK UNIVERSITY CIRCULATION DESK

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