Using LIBRARY SKILLS What's Important
About Knowing
Where You Are
in the Parks Library?

You Can Ask Any Librarian!
There are many students, teachers and other adults who know how to find their way around a library without much assistance. These people already have learned how to find the books they want to read. They know where they are in the library. However, some library users don't know how to find the books they want. The branch librarian at a neighborhood county public library commented that she would like to see young students trained more in the Dewey decimal system so that they would be more comfortable as lifelong library users. People are more comfortable and better able to use a facility if they know how to find their way around, while they're there!

Do You Know How Do They Do It?
They know how to find the books they want because they know how the books are arranged. For example, the books in the fiction section are in alphabetical order by the author's last name; and the books in the easy section, or the picture books, are found exactly the same way. The nonfiction and reference sections use the Dewey decimal system to group books by topics with corresponding numbers. In the biography section, books are in alphabetical order by the last name of the person the book is about. Our Accelerated Reader books have a somewhat more complicated arrangement, but it is not difficult to learn.

What About Spine Labels? And Other Libraries?
Each book in a library has a spine label showing its call number. The call number indicates which section the book belongs to, and where the book belongs within that section. With very few exceptions, all libraries use the same arrangement of books as described in the previous paragraph. You can be certain that librarians are eager to help library users learn to find what they want.

Would You Recognize These Call Numbers?

1. F BLU might be a novel (fiction classification) by Judy Blume.
2. E CAR might be a picture book (easy classification) by Eric Carle.
3. B EINSTEIN probably would be a biography of Albert Einstein.

How Does the Dewey Decimal System Work?

• The numbers 000 through 999 are broken down into 10 groups; for example, the 000's, the 100's, etc.
• Each category represents a broad subject area; for example, the 500's are Pure Sciences.
• Each broad subject area is broken down into 10 subgroups; for example, the 590's are Zoology. You can see more information about these subgroups at "Do We" Really Know Dewey or How to Use the Dewey Decimal System websites.
• A nonfiction book has a call number that indicates the specific subject number and the first three letters of the author's last name.

How Are the Accelerated Reader Books Arranged?
In Parks LMC, the Accelerated Reader books are located in several places. The A.R. books which are fiction, nonfiction, story collection or biography are shelved accordingly. However, there is a separate "A.R. Section" which is a mixture of the A.R. books which are classified as easy collection.