How to Use the Library

Libraries have come a long way since I first used them as a child.  On the one hand, they are still comforting quiet places where you can find a book about anything you may have an interest in.  On the other, they are now high tech and searchable by computer catalogs, something that today’s children are no doubt more comfortable with them over the card catalogs of yesteryear. 

The first thing a child must understand is that the library is usually divided into sections.  There are fiction, non-fiction and periodicals and sometimes more sections, too. Explain to them that fiction is made up stories that someone imagined.  They are not true facts about real people, places or things like non-fiction books are.  Periodicals are newspapers and magazines that are new every week or month. 

The second thing a child needs to know is that every book has its own special place in the library.  Just like you have a place you live in your town and on your street, books have a place they live in the library and on the shelf.  And just like you have an address called a number and street, books have an address known as a call number, which you find on the spine of the book.

The call number on fiction books starts with the first letters of the author’s last name.  The shelves fiction books live on are in alphabetical order by those letters.  When you get to the right section on the shelf, you look at the numbers underneath the letters to find just the right book.

The non-fiction books have number addresses instead of letter addresses like the fiction books.  Non-fiction books live on the shelf in a number order instead of alphabetical order like fiction books do.  The number order we use is called the Dewey Decimal System and it has 10 subject categories that divide up non-fiction books by subject.  That means all the science books are in together in one section and all the car books are together in another section.

The library catalog is where you can find a certain book’s call number (address).  You can search the catalog in lots of different ways:  by the author who wrote the book, the category of the book, the title (name) of the book or even just what the book is about (the subject).  Today the library catalogs are on computers.  They are usually easy to use, but if you have any questions, nice librarians are always there to help you find the book you need.

The library is a wonderful place all children should discover.  Explaining call numbers, the Dewey Decimal System and catalogs may seem confusing, but like so many things, the best way to teach them is to take a day and go to the library and show them.  Who knows, you may get lost among the tomes and neither one of you will want to leave.