Library Search

Today is Dr Seuss’ Birthday! March 2nd. Many schools and libraries have read-a-thons and classroom readings of some of Dr. Seuss’ works.

Sometimes we need to search for books within the library. Our public library has made it extremely easy for anyone to find their book of choice.

I remember back in the day walking up to a counter that had multiple sliding wood drawers and thumbing through index cards that would tell me where to go on my treasure hunt through the shelves of the library. Those days for the most part are no longer with the introduction of libraries using online databases. Now we can simply walk up to any computer within the library, or even use our own computer or phone at home, and search for and even reserve the books or other media we are looking for. The database search involves a combination of either the authors name, genera, or the title of the book.

The sorting of books within our own public library does not involve the patron searching through numbers. The results are simply Fiction or Non-Fiction, the genera (history, cooking, Sci-fi, etc), and the author’s last name. So, if you already know that Ernest Cline is a Sci-fi author and your looking for his book, Ready Player One. You could skip the search on the computer and head over to the Fiction books and look in the “C” section and find Cline and see if there is a copy of the book on the shelves.