Books badge, Part II

4) Visit your school or public library to find out how to: Find a book through the card catalog. Use reference books to find answers to questions. Find magazine articles about special subjects. Use a dictionary and encyclopedia. Find the publisher and price of a certain book.

Our old friend, the card catalog. Trevor showed us a picture of a card catalog as part of a lecture – such a beautiful sight! As I recall, card catalogs were standardized and they all pretty much looked the same. Once you understood the difference between subject, title and author and learned how to decipher the card itself (which wasn't that difficult), you could go to a library just about anywhere and know how to search.

Now, each library has to have its own look, and some bury the search function behind news and events. It’s hard enough figuring out how to sort through everything you get back after you type in your search criteria – help me get started in a way that is user-friendly and offer suggestions along the way!

Philip and I took a trip down to the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area when we first moved to Arizona and, after hiking and enjoying the beautiful scenery, stopped in to see the San Pedro House, which operates as a visitor center and store. I purchased some bookmarks made from recycled catalog cards. I was so glad to see that the cards were not being thrown away, but put to other uses – and all purchases helped support the Friends of the San Pedro.

A clever use for the library catalog cards.

I remember using the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, big volumes kept in the reference area, along with the World Book Encyclopedia. I would look up something in the World Book and get distracted, ending up browsing through half the volume before finally refocusing. The coolest entry was on the human body – transparent pages allowed you to layer the bones, then the organs, then the muscles on top of a silhouette.

That was the height of high tech!!