GST113

ACCESSING LIBRARY RESOURCES VIA CATALOGUE AND OTHER

FINDING AIDS.

The library generally is a collection of books and non-book materials, acquired,

organized for use. Library is a store house of knowledge which must be disseminated
to users. It is very important that library users know how to obtain information
needed by familiarizing themselves with how library materials are organized or
arranged. As the library continue to grow in size and variety of resources due to new
acquisition, it becomes imperative that the library operates a system that will enable
her resources accessed.
The Traditional means which the library employs to disseminate information
includes;
➢ The Catalogues
➢ The indexes
➢ The Abstracts of correct contents.
Other aids in finding materials in the library include;
1. Shelf Tag
2. Book label
3. Shelf Guide
4. Reference librarian.
5. Filling system
6. All the above examples are traditional methods of locating library materials.
The Library Catalogue:
The Catalogue is one such important tool to access the library holdings. The
catalogue is the list of all documents, which form the holdings of a library usually
arranged systematically in an alphabetical order by call number, author, title or
subject. Library catalogue is a growing list because library is a growing organism
and acquires materials always. The person responsible for preparing a library
catalogue is a professional referred to as cataloguer. The process of preparing a
catalogue is known as cataloguing. Cataloguing is the physical description of book
and non-book materials for easy identification and use.
The catalogue varies in physical forms and types arranged in a systematic order.
OBJECTIVES OF A LIBRARY CATALOGUE
1. The library catalogue enables a person to find a book by author, title or
subject.
2. It shows the library’s collection by a given author, subject or a given kind of
literature
3. It helps a user to make choice of a book as regards to its edition and year of
publication
FUNCTIONS OF A LIBRARY CACTALOGUE
A library catalogue performs the following functions;
1. The library catalogue provides a bibliographic description of every item in a
library collection
2. The library catalogue shows at a glance the total holdings of the library.
3. It shows how and where to locate a particular material in the library.
4. A library catalogue shows what book the library has by a certain author.
5. It shows whether the library has a book of a particular subject/title.
6. It shows what edition of a work a library has and other bibliographic details
of a book in stock.
PHYSICAL FORMS OF THE CATALOGUE
The card catalogue.
In the library, catalogue entries are made on card which can be filed and interfiled
at will. The card is called catalogue card measures about 3cm for length and width
is 5cm 3 by 5cm.
Information shown on the card include: author, title, edition statement, place of
publication, publishers, year of publication, pagination, international standard book
number (ISBN), series note where applicable and call number.
A sample catalogue Card is thus:
Azukwe, Ifeoha
Africa; Conflict resolutions and
international diplomacy/Ifeoha
Azukwe; Keynes: Arthor House,2009
442pg, illus;23.5cm
ISBN: 978-1-4490-6306-1
Includes Appendixes and index

J25584
. A35A

A pictorial representation of a catalogue cabinet

INDEXES: There are two types of indexes;
a. The list of words that comes up at the end of books i.e major words, names,
concepts, that occur in a book arranged alphabetically.
b. A systematically arranged list giving information about each item be it in a
journal or newspaper article of books to enable it to be identified and traced.
Without indexes, it will be very difficult to know what articles are available
in a given subject in a library. Example; (a). Education Index (b). Art Index
(c). Periodical index (d). newspaper article Index.
In a nutshell, Indexes are important retrieval tools to access the intellectual content
of a document. The word index means to point at. Index is an indicator or an access
point or a pointer to the intellectual content of a document or to the location of
information. It is the systematic arrangement of entries, usually in alphabetical order
designed to enable users to locate information in a document. It could be
conceptualized as a key that unlocks the content of a document making it easy to be
located Aina (2004)
Indexes ranges from simple list to a very complex tools for locating information. It
is systematic guide to the location of word, concept or other relevant items in books,
periodicals and other publications. It is designed to indicate topics or features or
parts of document.
There are different indexing sources of which require specialized skills from
indexers. Examples include the following: author indexing, title indexing,
bibliographical and base indexing, periodical and newspaper indexing, pictorial
indexing, legal indexing, genealogical indexing, geographical indexing, book
indexing, subject indexing, website and meta data indexing (Nwachukwu & Ogwo
2014)
The primary purpose of an index is to indicate the location of a particular item in a
document. An index should be able to assist in retrieving recorded information that
has been stored and organized by indexing process.
ABSTRACTS
Abstract is a brief concise and comprehensive summary of the intellectual content
of any document (Lancaster 1998) is a terse representation of a document such as
books, journals, conference proceedings. Thesis, dissertations, bringing out all the
key points in the original documents. It could be said to be a concise summary of the
original content of research findings bringing out succinctly the objective,
methodology, scope, finding conclusions and recommendations, especially in an
information abstract, Nwachukwu and Ogwo (2014).
A good Abstract needs to be brief, well organized and contains the most vital
ideas continued in the original work. This will enable the reader to decide whether
to read the entire article or not.
Generally, abstract always appear at the beginning of a manuscript or article,
acting as a point- of- entry for every given scientific paper.
TYPES OF ABSTRACTS.
There are two major types of abstract;
a. Informative Abstract
b. Indicative/Descriptive Abstract
An indicative abstract briefly describes the original work, while an informative
abstract presents all the main requirements and important results found in the
original work.
Informative Abstract: informative Abstract is the most comprehensive type of
abstract. It is concise version of the original document that brings out the entire
salient points discussed. Informative abstract is the most popular and useful type
of abstract because it summarizes the document and allows the reader to gain an
accurate understanding of the original documents.
An informative abstract for empirical work usually contains scope, purpose,
methodology. Findings, conclusions and recommendations; infact it is the
summary of the entire work.
Indicative Abstract: an indicative Abstract simply points out briefly what is
contained in the original document but does not provide the actual information,
hence cannot be used as a substitute to the original document.

Other aids in finding materials in the library include;

1. Book label: A book label is a label that is attached to the spine of each book
in the library which signifies its subject.
2. A shelf tag helps the library users to easily identify materials
available in each row of a shelf in the library.
3. Shelf Guide: This is a sign or a label attached for the edge
of a shelf in a library. This indicates its contents by class
number or by a denoted alphabet of a class mark. i.e. HB,
HD, HC.

A pictorial view of a shelf guide

4. Reference librarian: Reference librarians recommend,

interpret, evaluate, information resources to help patrons
with specific information needs. Requests for assistance
 often occur in person at the library, reference is increasingly
conducted by phone, chat and email. The librarian is a
specialized librarianship professional dedicated to assisting
library patrons and users in finding accurate and relevant
information.

5. Filing Systems: this is the alphabetical arrangement of the

catalogue entries into the catalogue cabinet.