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 the city. Look on the back of the Pennsylvania 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 Commonwealth
Libraries site (www.statelibrary.state.pa.us) and found that the main
branch of the Carnegie Library was right in Oakland, the downtown
area of Pittsburgh. 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 Forbes Avenue, 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 Schenley Park. Once inside the main room of
the Carnegie 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 Slake's Limbo by Felice Holman,” Adam told his father.
Following the signs, the two made their way to the second floor
of the library and 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. “It's about a boy who lives in a subway.
Do you have it?”
“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 Slake's Limbo. The
computer responded by showing a list of titles that matched his search
and the year each book was published. When Adam saw the title Slake's Limbo in blue print, he clicked on it. 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 Carnegie Library's
Main Branch.
“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 FIC 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 JUV in front of FIC indicated
that this book could be found in the children’s room. (JUV
= juvenile.) “The books are organized alphabetically by the
author’s last name,” she added, “so you will
look in the H’s for Holman.”
“Okay, I see how the system works,” Adam said. “Well,
thanks! I want to go find Slake's Limbo 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 Slake's Limbo. 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.
