In order to locate material in the library, you will need to use some basic skills:
ABC order
Number order
Geography
* FIRST WE'LL START WITH GEOGRAPHY SKILLS *
THE WORLD IS DIVIDED into seven continents. Most continents are further divided into countries, states or provinces, counties, cities, neighborhoods, streets, and street addresses. A neighborhood can be divided into places we live, work, and 'play.' The places where we work fall into different 'industries,' of which there are many divisions: education, government, finance, health care, manufacturing, construction, etc. A school can be divided into several areas: classrooms, bathrooms, offices, hallways, cafeteria, gym, multi-purpose room, art room, workshop, and--last but not least--library.
A library is divided into several areas, too. Some common sections of a library include
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Biography
Reference
Periodicals
ABBREVIATIONS are shortened forms of words or phrases and are often used on maps.
IA --> Iowa
NY --> New York
USA --> United States of America
Eng. --> England
A library uses abbreviations to label its sections, too:
F/FIC --> Fiction (stories that come from an author's imagination; made-up)
B/BIO --> Biographies (true story of an actual person's life)
R/REF --> Reference (books which are referred to for certain information, not usually read cover to cover, ready for use on demand, and therefore not usually checked out of the library; these include books such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and almanacs)
P/PER --> Periodicals (works that are published on a regular schedule, or periodically; these include newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, newsletters, and even the school yearbook!)
BUILDINGS HAVE ADDRESSES to help people find their locations.
Library books have addresses, too. A book's address is called a call number (even though they don't all contain a number--confusing, huh?).
The call number can be found on the spine of the book on a little white label, called a spine label, and might look something like these:
The top line of the call number is an abbreviation of the section of the library in which the book is located. So when you see
F/FIC --> Go to the Fiction section
R/Ref --> Go to the Reference section
B/BIO --> Go to the Biography section
###.#s -->Go to the Non-Fiction section
The bottom line is an abbreviation of the author's last name. (Or sometimes when there is no author listed, it's an abbreviation of the first word in the title)
FIC Des --> fiction book by Sarah Dessen
FIC PB Des --> fiction book by Sarah Dessen, in paperback
BIO Lin --> biography about Abraham Lincoln
590 And--> non-fiction book by William Anderson
599 Bla --> non-fiction books by Sarah Black
REF 590 And --> non-fiction reference book by William Anderson
* NOW FOR MATH SKILLS *
Books with call numbers that actually have numbers in them are placed in the non-fiction (information and facts of the real world; stories that actually happened) section of the library.
Books are first arranged in numerical order, smallest to largest.
590 And comes before 599 And because 590 is less than 599
* NOW FOR YOUR ABC SKILLS *
When more than one book has the same number, they are then arranged in alphabetical order by the author's last name.
- FIC and BIO books do not have an actual number.
- Fiction books are arranged in alphabetical order by the author's last name.
- Biographies are arranged in alphabetical order by the last name of the biographee, or the person whose life story is being told.
- When there is more than one book by the same author, they are next arranged in alphabetical order by the first word in the title (don't count the word the or a)
599 And comes before 599 Ber because A comes before B in the alphabet
FIC Des comes before FIC Pau because D comes before P in the alphabet
BIO Lin comes before BIO Was because L comes before W in the alphabet
Sarah Dessen's books would be in alphabetical order like this: Along for the Ride, Dreamland, Just Listen, Keeping the Moon, Lock and Key, Someone Like You, That Summer, This Lullaby, The Truth About Forever, Someone Like You.