{"id":434,"date":"2021-03-30T17:48:21","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T17:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomp2\/?post_type=chapter&p=434"},"modified":"2022-07-25T19:31:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T19:31:20","slug":"using-the-library","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomp2\/chapter\/using-the-library\/","title":{"raw":"Using the Library","rendered":"Using the Library"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\nExamine ways to find scholarly articles and books using library catalogs,\u00a0 specialized databases,\u00a0and internet search engines\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Library Catalog<\/h2>\r\nSince all digital library catalogs are slightly different, the following is just an outline of the most common scenarios. Your school's library probably has specific resources on using its particular system. Check the website and look for a link that says something like \"Using the Library\" for informational materials.\r\n\r\nCollege libraries hold a wide range of materials: books, DVDs, academic (scholarly) journals, magazines, newspapers, and more. When you use the online catalog, you will not only will find what your library physically owns, but it will also search for materials that the library has access to digitally or online. This can sometimes be confusing and can lead to a lot of search results. Fortunately, your library's catalog provides you with ways to limit your search results so that you can identify the specific kinds of resources that you need to find.\r\n\r\nLet's imagine that you need to find resources related to the American Revolution\u2014specifically you need to find two books and one documentary film.\r\n\r\nIf you search for American Revolution, you will see a search result that looks very similar to the one below:\r\n\r\n\"A\r\n

Filtering Results: Availability & Resource Type<\/h3>\r\nIn your search results, you should notice some key details. Pay attention to the area to the left of your search results, where you can use filters that control your search results. The first set of filters is labeled as \u201cAvailability.\u201d This will indicate how the resources are available. Are they available online? As peer-reviewed journals? You should notice there is an option that says \u201cHeld by Library\u201d or something similar to indicate that your library owns those materials. This is a great filter to use to limit your search results that you can access at your library.\r\n\r\nAnother area to look at is \u201cResource Type.\u201d Here, you\u2019ll find different formats that you can limit your search results to. For our scenario, what types of resources do you need?\u00a0 We need two books. When you look at the image above, you\u2019ll see that there are 6,693 books that are available in our search results. By clicking on \u201cBooks,\u201d you will then be able to browse a list of those items.\r\n

Advanced Search<\/h3>\r\nYou can also click on an option called \u201cAdvanced Search\u201d next to the search box at the top of your results (you might have to do a search first to see this depending on how your library has it set up). This option will allow you to be much more specific with your search. For example, let\u2019s say you wanted to find books that have \u201cAmerican Revolution\u201d in the title because you feel that those books will be most relevant to your topic. You also want to find books that address the causes of the American Revolution. This is hard to do in a simple search box. But in the Advanced Search option, you have much more control.\r\n\r\nBelow is an image of the Advanced Search from one library catalog system. You should be able to see that in the first line, the search is set up so that the Title contains \u201cAmerican Revolution.\u201d Then in the second line, there is the option that any field should contain the word \u201ccauses.\u201d The search is also limited to a Material Type of \u201cBooks.\u201d This Advanced Search has additional menus with other options we could use, such as language and date. You can even add additional keywords by choosing \u201cAdd a New Line.\u201d\r\n\r\n\"Advanced\r\n

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Library of Congress Classification System<\/h2>\r\nChances are good, the books in your school's library are ordered according to the\u00a0Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system. <\/strong>The LCC strives to divide all the world\u2019s knowledge into 21 topical areas and groups them alphanumerically. That is, they first assign a topic area to a letter, and then divide that topic up by numbers. Created by the U.S. Library of Congress to meet the needs of its collection, the first outline of the LCC was released in 1904 (\u201cLibrary of Congress Classification\u201d).\r\n
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Library of Congress Classification<\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\nA: General Works\r\n\r\nB: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion\r\n\r\nC: Auxiliary Sciences of History\r\n\r\nD: World History\r\n\r\nE: History of the Americas\r\n\r\nF: History of the Americas\r\n\r\nG: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation\r\n\r\nH: Social Sciences\r\n\r\nJ: Political Science\r\n\r\nK: Law\r\n\r\nL: Education\r\n\r\nM: Music\r\n\r\nN: Fine Arts\r\n\r\nP: Language and Literature\r\n\r\nQ: Science\r\n\r\nR: Medicine\r\n\r\nS: Agriculture\r\n\r\nT: Technology\r\n\r\nU: Military Science\r\n\r\nV: Naval Science\r\n\r\nZ: Bibliography, Library Science, Information Resources\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nThe LCC then adds numbers after each letter to get more specific within each topic area. Our example below has the call number E203.A5725. This call number falls within the range E201\u2013298, which is reserved for works about the American Revolution.\r\n\r\n\"Library\r\n\r\nPlease watch this video explanation [1:49], which demonstrates the different elements of LCC call numbers and how they are ordered on a library shelf:\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/fe3D5jvQ7FA\r\n

Specialized Databases<\/h2>\r\nA specialized database\u2014often called a research or library database\u2014allows targeted searching on one or more specific subject areas (i.e., engineering, medicine, Latin American history, etc.), for a specific format (i.e., books, articles, conference proceedings, video, images), or for a specific date range during which the information was published. Most of what specialized databases contain can not be found by Google or Bing.\r\n\r\nThere are several types of specialized databases, including:\r\n