Re: Hit: Library catalog lessons

[Gordon Riley <Gordon_Riley@MERCERSBURG.EDU>]

I think the most important element of library catalog is relevence.  In =
most HS libraries, the catalog is not of crucial importance to finding =
books.  So to demonstrate relevence, I start out by asking "Who has been =
to a library at a large university?"  I end up introducing the catalog =
worksheet by admitting that they don't need to be experts in using the =
computer catalog in order to find books HERE, but that the point of the =
exercise is to develop skills that they can export to using the catalogs =
at college where they will be lost in the library without these skills.

I have tried many different middles, but the one that seems to work best =
is when I tell them how I used to go to the card catalog and get a the =
first three digits of Dewey number (like 328) that related to my topic and =
ignored the rest of the letters and numbers.  Then I would go to the =
shelves and look at all the books around that number until I found the =
best books.  When I tried that in college, I found that the 328's were =
taking up a whole floor the size of a gym and I was no closer to finding =
my book than I had been when I came in the door.

Then I tell them about the University of Michigan Library system with 20 =
odd libraries scattered over 40 square miles of town, where the Undergradua=
te Library is a skyscraper and the Graduate Library is a rabbit warren of =
what used to be several buildings interconnected with tunnels with =
different colored lines on the floor to help you find your way from =
basement 6a to basement 6b.



Gordon Riley
Electronic Resources Librarian
Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg, PA
Gordon_riley@mercersburg.edu
The opinions expressed are my own!

"It's all about sincerity.  Once you can fake that, you've got it made."  =
Former NFL Head Coach Monte Clark, paraphrasing George Burns

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