Commons Knowledge

Now, before anyone takes offence with the title, please check out the "For Dummies" story.

For this exercise, think of the library as it's own little world . . . The first line you encounter is the "Country" that you're looking for (or the location within the library). We have may countries here: Stacks, Reference, Periodicals, Education Room, Circ Desk, Reserves, even Storage (aka Siberia). So make sure that you're in the right country before looking further.

The next line could be considered the "Province", and it's made of one or two letters that indicate the general subject. Books are organized by subject matter. The Library of Congress (LC) list of letters that have been assigned to the various subjects (classifications) can be found here. They are, of course all arranged in alphabetical order.

Next we find the "City", don't worry they're all numerical and arranged in order. Sometimes you'll see decimal points . . . don't be intimidated, just read them the way you were taught in junior high. (Remember? 6457, 6457.2, 6457.261, 6457.3).

The "Street" is the next level down and it requires a bit more attention to detail. . . Notice that there is a decimal point in front of the whole line and this is a clue. You read this line first alphabetically and then as a decimal, here it's 0.65. Follow your basic rules for decimals, for instance 0.7 goes after 0.65 and 0.4 goes after 0.3998.

Chances are you'll have your book in hand by now, but you may need the "House Number" to determine the specific edition. The fifth (and final) line in our example gives the year of publication.

Now some variation can be found in call numbers . . . the old cliche, "an exception to every rule" really applies. But for the most part, you can't go wrong imagining the call number as an address.

501 MUST-READ BOOKS is a guide to the best literature in the English language chosen by scholars and authors within the genres of Children's Fiction, History, Memoirs, Modern Fiction, Science Fiction, Thrillers and Travel. Reading these books will greatly enhance a well rounded liberal arts education—therefore the 501 Collection has been brought together in one place, at the Ward Chipman Library.

Join us in the Learning Commons on Friday, September 18, 2009 at 10 a.m. for the official launch of the collection. Enjoy refreshments and take some time to browse through the collection.

Welcome back to a new year at UNBSJ everyone! We are so happy to see all the familiar faces of returning students, and are excited about getting to know the new group of first year students. We want you to know that the Ward Chipman Library is here to serve you and your needs, please stop by the Circulation and Information & Research Technology Support Desks to say "Hi" and meet the staff. While you are here take a walk around and see some of the changes that have been made over the summer. We've bought furniture, put up blinds and whiteboards, installed Smart Boards, painted study rooms and installed some new shelving. Whew! Come see what we believe are some great improvements (anything was better than those old orange chairs) and let us know what you think of the new look.

Desperately in need of a book or journal and the Ward Chipman Libraries copy is not available. Have no fear for Document Delivery Requests are here. The requests are free of charge for students and faculty members. If you go to our Document Delivery page you will be able to submit a request for the material that you are searching for. Then in about 3 to 4 business days you will receive a phone call or email letting you know that your material is available at the Circulation Desk. If it is a journal article they will automatically send it to your email address, but make sure you either save or print it because once you click on the link one time then you will not be able to access it again. If it does not say that Fredericton carries it make sure that you still fill out a request as they will get the material through Interlibrary Loan. You can find the forms online at: http://www.lib.unb.ca/requests/docdel/

We’d like you to meet the newest member of the Ward Chipman Library team. Lisa Marino is our new Evening and Weekend Supervisor. If she looks familiar it is because she has recently completed her BA/BEd here at UNBSJ and worked as a student assistant in the library last year. Not only has Lisa signed on to work evenings and weekends in the library, she is also working on a grade one internship at Centennial Elementary, so this will be a very busy year for her. When she does get a few minutes down time Lisa likes to spend it with her friends and family and even manages to squeeze in a walk or two with Buttons her Beagle/Jack Russell Terrier. With her student days just months behind her you can trust that Lisa knows how stressful being a student can be and will be happy to help with all your library needs.

Would you like a chance to win a $10.00 gift certificate to use at the Cafeteria or the Tim Horton's on campus? If so you need to read our blog, and read it often. Every other week we run a different contest, enter and you could be our next winner. To get the ball rolling this year we have an easy one for you. As you know we celebrated the launch of our 501 Collection last week, "a collection of 501 must read books". Send us an email and tell us what your all time "must read" book is and we'll enter your name in this week's draw. Entries must be received before Friday Sept. 25th to be included in the draw. Good Luck everyone!

Writing an essay for your class and want to make sure that you are on the right track. Then the people at the Writing Centre are the ones to talk to. The Writing Centre is situated in the Ward Chipman Library.

Writing Centre consultants aim to help students improve their own writing abilities through individual tutoring sessions that focus on academic assignments. Students can get help to understand the particular demands of formal, academic writing in English, including such topics as clarifying ideas, making an outline, developing a thesis statement, thinking critically, structuring an argument, proofreading, editing, and revising. The goal is to help students improve the clarity of their own thought and expression.

To book an appointment with the Writing Centre on the Saint John campus, drop by the Circulation Desk of the Ward Chipman Library, call 648-5710, or call Student Services 648-5501.

Every profession has their own jargon, suitably confusing to “outsiders”. The library is no exception. For this reason we are pleased to invite you into our world by defining a few of the more common terms you may hear in the library on a regular basis:

Reserves: These are high-demand materials, selected and often provided, by instructors to be used in a specific class. Reserves may be books, assignment solutions, lecture notes, videos, etc. that are available from the circulation desk for short-term loans from 2-hours to 3 days.

Citation: In your writing you must always acknowledge the ideas and works of others. A citation is the indicator that you place in the body of your text to “cite” another’s work. It points toward the corresponding reference (see below) and can be formatted in a variety of styles such as (Name, Year).

Reference: All of the information (author, title, journal, date, volume, publisher, etc.) that you would require in order to find the item yourself. Often expressed in a specific format such as APA (American Psychological Association) or MLA (Modern Language Association).

Serial: The general name given to publications that are issued at intervals and expected to continue indefinitely. Examples include newspapers, journals and conference proceedings.

Periodical: A specific type of serial publication that is produced at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually) with a comprehensive numbering system such as volumes or issues that contain separate articles.

Index: A “guide” published either in-print or electronically, that lists the location of topics that can be found in a specific work or collection of works. Prior to the extensive on-line “searchable” indexes available today, most research began with long hours raking through periodical indexes.

Stacks: The bookshelves that hold the core collection of books within the library.

Our congratulations go to Bobbie Kay. Her name was drawn from all the entries you submitted with the name of your favorite “must read” book. (Her’s was Silas Marner by George Eliot.) Bobbie has won a $10.00 ARAMARK gift certificate, which she can use at the Baird dining room or the Tim Horton’s on campus. There will be another contest next week, enter for your chance to win.

If you are looking to borrow a laptop from the library you will discover that you now have two models to choose from. Not only do we still have the Dell laptops that are so popular, but this year we’ve also purchased several Dell Netbooks. The Net books are small, light and a quick tool if you are looking to browse the web or just need to use the Microsoft Office Suite. These mini computers don’t have all the bells and whistles of their larger counterparts but they do have a webcam and instantly connect to the internet when they are turned on. Circulation rules are the same for net books as for the other laptops, which is a 2 hour loan, and they can be taken anywhere on campus. They have excellent battery life and power cords are also available to check-out as well.

Quest is our online library catalogue. You can search for books, journals and reference materials. It will tell you if the material is available and where you can find it in the Library. If it is not available then it will tell you the date that the item is due back. You can put a hold on the item if you want to make sure that you will be the next person to receive it.

Quest consists of slightly more than 1,000,000 bibliographic records, which refer to the holdings of the Harriet Irving Library, the Engineering Library, the Science and Forestry Library and the Gerard V. La Forest Law Library on the Fredericton campus and the Ward Chipman Library on the Saint John campus. Look in the "Holdings" section of the records in Quest to find the specific location and circulation status of each item.

You can access Quest through the library homepage:
http://www.lib.unb.ca/