On a warm afternoon in September, Adam sat out on his front porch,
waiting for his dad to return from the grocery store. He wanted to
ask him about going to the library. When he saw his dad coming down
the street, he ran down the block to greet him, crunching over piles
of dry leaves. “Dad, let’s go! I want to go to the library!
I have a book list!”
“Sure thing, Adam,” Mr. Evans answered as he shifted
two bags of groceries onto his other arm. “That’s a
great idea. Do you know which book you’re looking for?”
“Yeah,” Adam said. “I just got a book list
from my teacher today with a bunch of books I can read in my free
time. I found one that looks really cool.”
Mr. Evans smiled. “That sounds great, Adam. Give me an hour
or so to finish a few chores first. Before we leave home, you should
find the public library branch closest to our house. There are branches
all over town. Look on the back of the New York Parent Report. I think
there's a website you can use to find closest library branch.”
“No problem, Dad,” Adam said. He reached up and took
one of the brown paper bags from his father, and they started back
toward the house. Adam bounced with anticipation of his trip to the
library.
A little while later, Adam and his father logged onto the New York
State Library site (www.nysl.nysed.gov/) and found that the East Rochester
Public Library was right on West Elm St. He wrote down the branch’s
address, hours, and directions. In almost no time at all, Adam and
his father were ready to go. They grabbed the copy of the list Adam
had printed from the library website, and boarded a bus down the street
from their house.
When Adam and his father arrived at West Elm St, it was 2 p.m.
The streets were bustling with students heading to classes at the
nearby universities, as well as those who wanted to enjoy the mild
weather with a trip to Mendon Ponds Park. Once inside the main room
of the library, Adam and his father noticed a couple of little kids
looking over children’s books with their parents. “I
need to ask a librarian where I can find A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle,” Adam told his father.
Following the signs, the two made their way to the children’s
fiction section. The librarian, Ms. Delgado, sat nearby, looking over
some paperwork at her desk.
“Excuse me,” Mr. Evans said. “Can you help
my son find the book he is looking for?”
“I certainly can,” she replied. Looking at Adam,
she smiled. “Do you have the name and author of the book?”
Adam handed her his book list. “I found this book on a list
from my school,” he said, pointing to the title circled on
the crinkled page. “I heard it's about some kids who rescue
their dad from evil scientists on another planet!”
“Let’s look for it in the electronic catalog,”
Ms. Delgado said. “I can show you what to do, and then the
next time you come you’ll be able to use the catalog on your
own.”
Adam noticed that there were two types of computers in the library.
Some were located at stations or cubicles and were used for doing
research on the Internet. Other computers were just used for searching
the library catalog, which is what Ms. Delgado wanted to do.
When they reached a catalog computer, Ms. Delgado pulled out a
seat for Adam. “Sit down here and we can enter the information
about your book,” she said, as Mr. Evans looked on from behind
Adam’s chair.
“Looks like you can just enter the title of the book when
you use the catalog,” Mr. Evans said.
“That’s right,” Ms. Delgado said, “and
you can also search by the author, subject, or even a keyword.”
“I’ll just stick with the title for now,”
Adam said. Then he typed in A Wrinkle in Time. The computer responded by showing a list of titles that matched
his search and the year each book was published. Adam said, “All
the listings here say things like 'VHS' or 'Spoken compact disc.'”
She told him to keep scrolling down until he found the title without
any of those other words. Adam found A Wrinkle in Time in blue print at the bottom of the page, with 1962 written next
to it. “Wow, this book is pretty old,”
he said, and clicked on the blue title. He was led to a page that
showed him the book’s status, which told him which branches
had the book and whether it was checked out. The page indicated that
the book was available in the East Rochester Public Library.
“Here’s the call number,” Adam said, pointing
at the screen, “but where are the numbers?”
Ms. Delgado explained, “This book falls under the general
category of young adult fiction, so instead of a number, you will
see FICTION for fiction. When you go to the shelves marked fiction,
you’ll see that the books are in alphabetical order by authors’
last names. Also be sure to look on the racks and book displays around
the children’s section. Sometimes you’ll find the book
you’re looking for in these places.”
Ms. Delgado then explained that the J in front of FICTION indicated
that this book could be found in the children’s room. (J =
juvenile.) “The books are organized alphabetically by the author’s
last name,” she added, “so you will look in the L’s
for L'Engle.”
“Okay, I see how the system works,” Adam said. “Well,
thanks! I want to go find A Wrinkle in Time and
check it out before someone else does!”
“If you need anything else, you know where to find me,”
Ms. Delgado called as Adam and his father headed to the fiction section.
When they got there, Adam quickly found A Wrinkle in
Time. He looked over his book list one more time and saw
another title that caught his eye. “Dad, do you mind if I look
for another book? This one is nonfiction,” he said.
“Of course you can Adam. Let's go ask the librarian about
how to search for a nonfiction book.”
Adam and his father found Ms. Delgado at her desk. “Back
so soon?” she asked with a smile.
Adam explained that he needed to find a nonfiction book. Ms. Delgado
brought him back to the computer and, after he searched for the new
title, she explained the results.
“Different nonfiction categories have their own sets of
numbers,” she pointed out. “For example, the 700’s
are for books about the arts. There you could find nonfiction books
about everything from William Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre to
the Mona Lisa.” She pointed across the
room towards the nonfiction collection. “Finally,” she
added, “the letter at the end stands for the first letter of
the author's last name.”
“Thanks so much. I can't wait to find more books!”
exclaimed Adam, bringing his father towards the nonfiction section.
Adam browsed through the nonfiction books, but soon decided that
one book would be enough to keep him occupied for now. His father
brought him back over to the circulation desk, where he checked out
his first book from the library.
As he and his dad went back outside to head home, Adam clutched
his new book beneath his jacket, running his fingers across the cover
again and again.
