For Your Information

Chapter 6: The Library

Understanding Call Numbers

Every book in your college library has a call number based on the Library of Congress classification system that enables you to locate it on the shelves. These numbers begin with one, two, or three capital letters followed by numbers. The letters are arranged alphabetically. If the first letter is a G and the next letter is an A, then the following call numbers in the sequence would be GB, GC, GD, and so on. The second line of the call number is always numerical-1, 2, 3, and so on. The third and fourth lines of the call number are alphabetical and decimal.
We went to the Library of Congress Web site-www.loc.gov/index.html-and in the Basic Search mode, using the Keyword choice, we typed in "Stem cell research and Juvenile Diabetes." Among the books that came up was one entitled Bioethics in the Clinic: Hippocratic Reflections by Grant R. Gillett (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004). The call number for this item was R724.G549 2004. The components of the call number break down as follows:

R Alphabetical
724 Numerical
.G549 2004 Decimal

To find Bioethics in the Clinic: Hippocratic Reflections at your library:

Follow the alphabet, moving along the shelves until you come to R.
Go down the R shelves until you come to the section that corresponds to 724.
Follow that section until you come to G. Then explore the G section until you reach 549.
If a call number is identical in all respects except for year of publication, then the books are placed in chronological order by the year of publication.

A Brief Lexicon of Internet Terms

If you're going to be surfing the Web, it's a good idea to get your terminology straight. Here are some of the more important terms to understand:

Bookmarks: These are a list of the Web addresses that you most frequently use.
Browser: A program used to view information on the Web. Netscape, Safari, and Internet Explorer are examples of browsers.
Chat: Real-time interaction among users on the Internet.
Cookie: A piece of information sent by a Web server to a user's browser.
Cyberspace: The entire range of resources available on computer networks.
Domain name: The unique name that identifies an Internet site.
FAQ: Frequently asked questions-a popular informational format.
Hit: A way of counting the number of visitors to a Web page, or the number of sites returned by a search engine in response to a search.
Home page: A starting point for accessing information on a Web site.
Hyperlink: Usually known simply as a "link," this is the part of a document that will take you to another document or another location within the same document.
JPEG: A method of compressing image files.
Login: The non-secret account name used to gain access to a computer system.
Maillist: A system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the maillist for the purpose of forming a discussion group. A listserv is the most common type of maillist.
Newsgroup: The name for discussion groups on USENET (see below).
Password: A secret code used to gain access to a locked system.
Spam: Unsolicited "junk mail" sent out on mailing lists or USENET.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator. A unique address of a specific site on the Web.
USENET: A worldwide system of discussion groups.
Webmaster: The person who creates and maintains a site on the Web.

Sources of Current Events Online

Another area that most college students will need to explore at some point or another is current events. Some excellent online sources exist for current events research. Search engines like Yahoo! list current events from around the world on their home pages. You might want to check out the following additional sites for ideas and information:
LookSmart (http://www.findarticles.com/) This site allows you to search from some 5.5 million articles from over 900 publications.
Oxford Analytica (http://www.oxan.com/) Here you will find highly useful links to a wide variety of resources addressing matters of international interest.
Public Agenda Online (http://www.publicagenda.org/) This site, created and maintained by a nonpartisan, nonprofit public research and citizen education organization offers valuable information on major policy issues.
SpeakOut.com (http://speakout.com/) Nonpartisan and free to users, this site provides information into major issues of the day with no slanting and far more depth than you would find from traditional news sources.

One More Reason Why Libraries Are Cool

"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance."-Lyndon Baines Johnson

Libraries may seem like proper buildings with prim librarians upholding silence to the highest degree, but libraries are also big on speech: free speech. Along with musicians, writers, actors, and artists, librarians are also waging a daily battle against censorship. Librarians are the unsung heroes of upholding your first amendment right to read what you want.

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."-Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

You might be surprised to find that what your professor wants you to read might have made the growing list of "challenged" books. And when your mother got in line at midnight to pick up the latest Harry Potter book, she might have supplied your younger sibling with "challenged" material. Challenges come from a variety of sources for myriad reasons-usually content is deemed offensive by the person or group initiating the challenge.

"[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers."-Judy Blume

Straight from the American Library Association (ALA) comes a list of the 20 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 1990-2000. You might find some surprising inclusions:

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel

To find out more about challenged books, visit http://www.ala.org/

Careers at Cengage | Contact Cengage