3. The Main Library Area*

In this area, you find books of all kinds on every subject you can imagine.

Fiction books are located in their own separate section of the library and filed on the shelves by author’s name in alphabetical order. Fiction for children and youth is usually found in a special area and each book is marked with “J” for juvenile.

Non-fiction books are filed according to one of two systems:

Dewey Decimal System (smaller Canadian libraries)

Library of Congress System

Non-fiction books are filed by subject area and then within a subject area by author. Based on the system your library uses, the main library area is divided into sections. Often the end of each row of shelves has numbers printed on it (e.g. 700- 800). This indicates that the books on this set of shelves have numbers on their spines which fall between these numbers. In other words, all the books on physics are placed in one section; all the cookbooks are shelved together, as are all books on golf.

4. The Catalogue Area

The next area of the library to explore is the catalogue area. This is usually located near the entrance and the circulation area. The catalogue area provides information about every one of the books (and other materials) the library owns in one of three ways: either in card catalogues, on micro-fiche files, or through on-line computer files. Once you know how to read the catalogues, you will be able to go directly to whatever book or piece of material you are looking for.