LESSON 5 CONTENTS:

Learning Objectives

Part One: The Organization of Library Materials

I. Preface to Part One

II. Subject Headings
* Subdivisions
* Types of Subdivisions
* Library of Congress Subject Headings

III. Classification Systems
* The Dewey Decimal Classification System
* The Library of Congress Classification System
* General Principles of Classification Systems

IV. Call Numbers

V. Part One Summary: The Complex Job of Organizing a Library

Part Two: The Online Catalog: Key to the Library’s Collection

VI. Preface to Part Two

VII. The Online Catalog – Key to the Library’s Collection
* The Structure of Online Catalogs
* Searching Online Catalogs
* The Peninsula Library system (PLS) Online Catalog

VIII. Key Points to Remember

Lesson Five Quiz

Lesson Five Exercise

VII. The Online Catalog – Key to the Library’s Collection

THE STRUCTURE OF ONLINE CATALOGS

Although OPACs often have a different look from library to library in terms of menus, record displays, commands, 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 offers 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.

You may recall from the previous lesson that every bibliographic record is composed of categories of descriptive information called fields. Listed below are the fields of a typical bibliographic record found on an OPAC:

AUTHOR

TITLE (will often include a subtitle after a colon)

EDITION (1st, 2nd, 3rd, revised, etc.)

PUBLISHER (city where published, name of publishing company, and date of publication)

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION (number of pages, number of illustrations, height of the book)

NOTES (chapter titles or brief summary of the book. Not always available.)

SUBJECTS (the valid LC subject headings assigned to that book)

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.

SEARCHING ONLINE CATALOGS

As you recall from the previous lesson, the 4 basic methods of searching a bibliographic database are by author, title, subject, and keyword. Since an online catalog is a bibliographic database, these same search methods apply.

In addition to basic search methods, most OPACs allow you to limit your search results by library location, date, format, reading level, and other settings.

Probably the most common way of searching an OPAC is by keyword. You may recall that this approach allows you to dispense with formal subject headings and search by your own “keywords.” However, once you find a book relevant to your topic, you should examine the subject headings for that book and continue your search using the most relevant headings. In many cases your keyword search will lead you to valid subject headings that you wouldn’t have thought of on your own.

Therefore, do not limit yourself to the results of your first keyword search. Be looking for those formal subject headings within the records for relevant titles because they often lead to books that you would not have found under your keyword search alone.

In sum, here’s a useful strategy for searching an OPAC when looking for books on any given topic:

• Start with a keyword search. You can use a single word (e.g. multiculturalism) or a multiple-word phrase (e.g. child abuse). Or, you may want to create a simple search statement that combines 2 concepts. For example: child abuse and prevention.

• Examine your results and find one book that best matches your topic.

• Display the full record for this book and look closely at the subject headings.

• Click on the subject headings that best describe your topic and you’ll be shown other books on that subject.

THE PENINSULA LIBRARY SYSTEM (PLS) ONLINE CATALOG

Skyline Library belongs to a consortium, or "family," of libraries known as the Peninsula Library System (PLS). The PLS system includes the three community colleges of this district (Skyline, College of San Mateo, and Ca~nada), and all the public libraries in San Mateo County, for a total of 35 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 44,000 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.