LESSON 2: FINDING BOOKS:
USING ONLINE PUBLIC ACCESS CATALOGS
Tutorial: Using the PLS online
catalog
* To understand the continuing importance of books in research.
* To understand the basic organizational features of books.
* To understand the purpose and structure of online catalogs and bibliographic records.
* To be able to do a keyword search of the Peninsula Library System (PLS) online catalog for a broad subject or a focused topic.
* To be able to search the online catalog by keyword, find a relevant record, and find related books by using that record’s subject headings.
* To know the definition and
purpose of a call number.
* To be able to find online
books (ebooks).
LESSON TWO TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. The Importance of Books in Research
2. Basic Organizational Features of Books
3. Searching the Online Catalog (OPAC): Your Key to the Library’s Collection
4. The Building Blocks of Online Catalogs: The Bibliographic Record
5. Call Numbers
6. The
7. Online Books (ebooks)
8. Key Points to Remember
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF BOOKS IN RESEARCH
Ever since the invention of the printing press in 1450, books have been crucial sources of information, knowledge, and entertainment. They continue to be important in research because:
- Books cover nearly every conceivable topic. In fact, more than 1,000 books are published worldwide everyday and they continue to be an important method for distributing information and ideas.
- Books often offer in-depth discussions and explanations rather than brief overviews or cursory discussions often common to magazine articles and websites.
- Some books are primary sources (e.g. a memoir such as Up from Slavery: An Autobiography, by Booker T. Washington) or contain primary sources (e.g. the complete text of letters written by President John Adams are found in Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers).
II. BASIC ORGANIZATIONAL FEATURES OF BOOKS
Books are highly
organized and have some or all of the following parts:
BOOK COVER: contains title, author(s) or editor(s), and cover art
click on
picture to enlarge
TITLE PAGE: contains the complete title, author(s) or editor(s),
and publisher
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enlarge
BACK OF TITLE PAGE: contains publication information,
including the copyright date
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to enlarge
TABLE OF
CONTENTS: lists the
sections and/or chapters and
corresponding page numbers
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picture to enlarge
INTRODUCTION OR PREFACE: explains the purpose and/or focus of the book
and usually gives an overview of the book’s content
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A list of books and/or articles either used by the author
in the writing of the book or suggested as further reading. Usually
placed at the end of each chapter or at the end of the book.
INDEX: an alphabetical list of topics covered in the book and the
page(s) where that topic can be found. Broad topics are divided into
subtopics in the index. It is very important to know how to use an index
so that you can go directly to the specific sections or pages that you’re
interested in.
APPENDIX: additional information such as statistical tables,
worksheets, questionnaires, primary source documents, etc.
III. SEARCHING THE ONLINE CATALOG (OPAC): YOUR KEY TO THE LIBRARY’S COLLECTION
To find a book at the library, you use the library’s online catalog, also known as the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog). The online catalog is a database that lists every item in a
library's (or group of libraries’)
collection. It displays details about every item owned by a library --
primarily books, but also audio-visual materials.
It is important to understand that OPACs do not give you magazine articles.
Instead, you use periodical indexes such as Gale
PowerSearch Databases to search for articles. (You will learn about
searching periodical indexes in Lesson 3.)
The
most common method of searching an OPAC is by keyword. A keyword is a word or phrase that describes
your research interest. (On some online
catalogs, including the OPAC used at Skyline Library, a keyword search is
called an “Any Field” search.)
A
keyword search is appropriate if you have either a broad subject in mind or if you have a more narrow research topic in mind. Let’s look at examples of each.
- Keyword Search on a Broad Subject: To find books on a broad subject, do a keyword search
using a word or phrase that describes your subject. The following are examples of keyword
search terms for broad subjects:
cancer
psychology
multiculturalism
smoking
women
childhood
child abuse
global warming
illegal immigration
capital punishment
nuclear proliferation
- Keyword Search on a Focused Research Topic: To find books on a topic, add precision to your keyword
search by combining search terms using the connecting word AND. This allows you to connect 2 or 3 ideas
in your research topic into one search
statement. For example:
RESEARCH TOPIC: What role does the burning of fossil fuels play in global warming?
KEYWORD SEARCH: fossil fuels AND global warming
RESEARCH TOPIC: What effect does globalization have on third world countries?
KEYWORD SEARCH: globalization AND third world
RESEARCH TOPIC: How will increased use of genetically engineered crops affect food safety?
KEYWORD SEARCH: genetic engineering AND food
RESEARCH TOPIC: What steps - if any - should the government take to censor pornography on the Internet?
KEYWORD SEARCH: censorship AND pornography AND internet
Be
willing to experiment with each of the above approaches to keyword
searching. You may find, for example,
that for some topics, it is better to do a keyword search for the general
subject, find a book on this subject and locate it in the library’s collection. Then, with
the book in hand, use the table of contents and index to find the specific
sections of the book that deal with your topic.
IV. THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ONLINE CATALOGS: THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Although OPACs often have a different look from library to library in terms of menus, record displays, etc., they all have the same basic structure and operational features. Every online catalog allows you to search and display results from its database of bibliographic records.
The bibliographic record (sometimes called a citation, reference, entry, or simply a record) gives you a detailed description of a book or other item owned by the library. Every book in a library's collection has an individual record and all the records together comprise the database of a library's holdings.
Every bibliographic record is composed of categories of descriptive information called fields. Fields are the individual parts of a record. For example, most records have an author field, a title field, a subject field, and so forth. Taken together, these fields make up the complete record.
Listed below are the fields most often included in an OPAC bibliographic record:
·
AUTHOR (the author’s
birth and death dates
are also often given)
·
TITLE (will sometimes include a subtitle
after a colon)
·
EDITION (1st, 2nd, 3rd, revised, etc.)
·
PUBLISHER (city where published, name of
publishing company, and copyright date)
·
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION (number of pages, number of
illustrations, height of the book)
·
NOTES (chapter titles or brief summary of
the book. Not always available.)
·
SUBJECT (specific headings that describe the
book’s subject matter)
(Note that subject headings are hyperlinks.
If you click on a subject heading, you will be brought to a list of
books on that same subject. This can be a
useful strategy to find more books on your subject or topic.)
By paying careful attention to the information contained in the fields of a record, skillful researchers learn a great deal about a book and its relevance to their research even before looking for it on the shelves.
Let’s look at an example of a typical bibliographic record from an online
catalog. Here is the front cover of a history book written by Henry Mayer:
The bibliographic record
describing this book would look something like this:
(NOTE: The appearance of records vary among library catalogs, but the basic
information would be the same for all.)
|
Notice that this record happens to be made up of 6 fields (named on the left) that fully describes Mr. Mayer’s book in terms of physical detail (number of pages, etc.) and bibliographic detail (author, title, subject focus of the book, etc.).
The information provided on
most bibliographic records does not provide much detail or any evaluation of
the content or quality of the book being described, but many library catalogs now
include links from the bibliographic record to additional information about
each book--reviews,
summaries or tables of contents of books--that can be very helpful to help you decide if the
book would be useful for a specific research project.
V. CALL NUMBERS
A crucial piece of information
found at the full display of a bibliographic record is the call number. A call number is a combination of letters and
numbers assigned to a book to indicate its shelving location. It is an
"address" that allows you to find that item in the library. Every book in a library has a unique call
number on its spine which matches the call number given on the bibliographic
record.
But more important than
merely being an "address" for a book, call numbers identify the primary
subject of a book, thus making it possible for books on the same subject to be
grouped together. Call numbers are derived from the letters and numbers of the
classification system being used by a particular library, either the Dewey
Decimal System or the Library of Congress (LC) System.
Since Skyline Library uses the LC system, let's examine the two parts of an LC
call number:
· A class number -- a letter or letters
indicating broad subject area plus a number indicating a narrower subject area
· An author number -- a combination of
letters and numbers that specify an author. This makes it possible to arrange
books alphabetically by author within each class.
Sometimes a call number ends
with a year, indicating the date of that book's edition.
Here is an example of the
parts of an LC call number:
|
F |
|
class number (i.e. F369) |
|
.D24 |
|
author number |
|
1971 |
|
edition date |
This call number corresponds
to the book Louisiana: A Narrative
History, by Edwin Davis, published in 1971. Note how each element in a call
number has a meaning and helps describe the book, either in terms of subject,
author, or date.
VI. THE
The online catalog used at Skyline Library is known simply as the Peninsula Library System Online Catalog,
or PLS Online Catalog. The Peninsula Library System (PLS) is a
consortium, or “family,” of libraries which includes the three community colleges of this district
(Skyline, College of San Mateo, and Cañada),
and all the public libraries in San Mateo County, for a total of 34 member
libraries. The PLS Online Catalog lists and describes the holdings (i.e. books
and other materials) of all the libraries that belong to the PLS family. Therefore,
when you use the PLS Catalog, you are searching a database that describes much
more than the 50,000 books in Skyline Library. In fact, you are searching a
database that lists the nearly 2 million items owned by the libraries of the
PLS system.
VII. ONLINE BOOKS (E-BOOKS)
For some research projects - or simply for your own reading enjoyment - you
may want to consider
online books. Also known as digital books or ebooks,
online books are computerized versions of print books that can be read on a variety
of devices such as PC’s, laptops, and PDA’s. Downloadable audio books for
listening are also available. Online books offer convenience, access, and the
unique capabilities of digitized text.
Online books are meant to be used online, i.e. you would not normally print an
entire ebook. The advantage of the ebook lies in options that are not
available with print books, such as searching the entire book for a specific
word or phrase.
Over the last decade,
universities, libraries, and others have been making more and more books
available online. Although ebooks comprise only a fraction of the books
available in print, there is a significant body of online books in subjects
ranging from the scholarly to popular.
The vast majority of free ebooks are those no longer under copyright
protection. Ebooks still under copyright
protection are more likely to be found at digital book services sponsored by
libraries and scholarly groups.
To find an online book, go to
the website of a digital book service. Keep in mind that libraries and
universities offer ebooks for free, while commercial providers charge a fee for
downloading a book.
Listed below are some of the major free and commercial digital book services:
FREE DIGITAL BOOK SERVICES:
California Digital
Library eScholarship
Project Gutenberg
University of Virginia
Electronic Text Center
Google Book Search:
FREE WITH THE USE OF LOCAL (PLS) LIBRARY CARD:
Digital
Book Library
ACLS
History E-Book Project
(For more information about any of these PLS library-based ebook services, click here.)
COMMERCIAL DIGITAL BOOK SERVICES:
eBooks.com
COMBINATION FREE AND COMMERCIAL:
VIII. KEY POINTS TO
REMEMBER
* Books
continue to be important sources of information and ideas because they cover
nearly every topic, often offer in-depth discussions, and sometimes qualify as
primary sources.
* It is very important to know how to use a book’s index to find
specific sections or pages that address a topic you’re
interested in.
* To find a book at the library, you use the library’s online catalog, also known as the OPAC
(Online Public Access Catalog).
* Every book in a library's collection has a bibliographic
record and all the records together comprise the database of a
library's holdings. Some online catalogs include links from the
bibliographic record to very useful additional information about the book, including reviews,
summaries and/or tables of contents.
*
Every bibliographic record is composed of
categories of descriptive information called fields, such as the
author field, title field, subject field, etc.
* A call number is a unique
combination of letters and/or numbers assigned to a book to indicate its
shelving location in a library. It is
found on the spine of the book and on the bibliographic record.
* Skyline Library belongs to a consortium of libraries known
as the Peninsula Library System (PLS).
* Online books are computerized versions of
print books. Although they are becoming more common, at present they
comprise only a fraction of the total number of books available in print.
Go to Tutorial: Using the PLS online
catalog
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revised: 2-4-08 by
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