🥇 Library Champion: Here are 10 simple ways to find what you need in our catalog 👀
Library Champion,
I am old enough to have grown up going to a library that still had a card catalog. I would thumb through the cards to find the details for a book and then I was off to the stacks. Today, all of those cards are digitized and we have the ability to search those records at any time from our computer, phone, or tablet.
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The card catalog system was made by librarians, so it makes sense in their heads. It may not make sense to people outside of library land. The terms we use, such as call number, shelving location, format type, copy notes, holds, and so on are not common terms you hear everyday. Even the name we have for the online catalog, an integrated library system (ILS), will cause your eyes to glaze over.
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✴️ The good news: I’m here to help decipher the library jargon so that you can find what you need from the library! In my upcoming newspaper column, I write about this very topic but only include 5 tips. Because you are a library champion and you make a difference each day, you unlock 🔓 the full version! Here are 10 simple ways to find what you need in our online catalog.
- Always look for Juniata County results: Our ILS is shared with a consortium of libraries (yep, another library term, and we are part of the SPARK consortium) so you will see that there are more copies of a item at a SPARK library. Always look to the top line that says the number of available copies at Juniata County.
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Search by type: By default, your search will look for keywords. You can type in “Mom” and hit search and that will bring you 594 results. But if you want to find an item with Mom in the title, you can click the dropdown menu to the right of type and pick Title, which will narrow your results to 46.
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Search by format: What if you only want to see the TV series Mom? Continue where we left off in #2 and click the dropdown menu to the right of format and pick DVD, which will narrow your results to 11. That’s a lot better than 594 results, right?
Donate to the library today! It takes less than a minute. Click here. - Get the basic info: When viewing the search results, each item will show (from top to bottom) the title, a logo of the item format with its name (disc for DVD, open book for book, etc.), the year it was published in parentheses, its call number (which is on the spine of the item) and how many copies we have. To the left will be a stock image of the cover which, depending on the edition or version we own, may be the same as you see when you have the item in your hands.
- See the number of copies: This one is important. Under the call number is a line that tells if you if this item is available right now or not. If it says 1 of 1, that means we have 1 copy available and we own 1 copy. If it says 0 or 1, that means we do not have a copy available at this time and we own 1 copy. We typically only have 1 copy of a book or movie.
- Add to your basket: To speed up the process, we have a feature that allows you to put into a basket multiple items that you want. Simply click add to basket on the right in green and when you are ready to check out, go above to basket actions and request them all at once.
- Text yourself the details: When you are ready to find an item, you often write down the name and all the details. You can send yourself a text message with that info. Under call number / copy notes, click text.
Donate to the library today! It takes less than a minute. Click here. - Find more by that author: Under the title is the author/creator of the item. Whenever the text is blue and underlined, you can click it to see more. Click that text and then see other works associated with them.
- Shelving Location: This is just another way to say where in our library the item is located. This will tell you if its a juvenile item (kids), young adult (teen), or if its new (we recently acquired it.)
- Place Hold: You are ready to go with your picks. You can either use the basket feature (#6 above) or just click Place Hold (meaning request the item.) You can then tell us how we can contact you when the item is ready and if its available, it will be ready within 30 minutes.
If you ever need assistance, call us at 717.436.6378. You will get a real-life human that is versed in the card catalog system and will find what you need!
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Here is one book I am reading and a book that I just bought for the library’s collection.
One book I am reading: The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth (Adult fiction, published in 1971 and adapted to film in 1973)
Mentioned in possibly my favorite show of all time, The Wire, the Day of the Jackal is the story of an assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man: French president Charles de Gaulle.
Frederick Forsyth is the author of fourteen novels and short story collections, from The Day of the Jackal to 2003's Avenger. A former pilot and print and television reporter, he has had five movies made from his works, and a television miniseries.
Bottom line: Want an edge-of-your-seat read? This one is for you.
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One of the books I purchased that you should check out: Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods by Amelia Pang (Adult nonfiction, published in 2021)
Pang’s story beings with an Oregon woman who, while opening a package of foam headstones for Halloween decorations, discovered a note written on onionskin paper describing the plight of prisoners in a labor camp in China: “People who work here, have to work 15 hours a day with out [sic] Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays, otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark, nearly no payment.” The note also pointed out that many of the prisoners were members of Falun Gong, a group that added a religious—and then dissident—element to the traditional practice of qi gong.
From that starting point, Pang describes not just the fate of the writer of that note—one of many that consumers in the West discovered in packages containing Chinese-made goods—but also the astonishingly comprehensive and oppressive Chinese penal system. Of that writer, blameless apart from his criticism of the government, Pang observes, “I felt that [his] fight for freedom and his subsequent imprisonment was emblematic of a much broader human rights issue, which extends beyond Falun Gong.” Indeed, the “laogai system” is the world’s “largest forced-labor system,” embracing labor camps, outright prisons, and even drug rehab centers; those who are sentenced to “reeducation through labor” have no recourse to courts but are sentenced at the whim of public security officials. The system is now being extended to include millions of people whose only crime is to have been born into the minority Uighur population.
Pang notes that the laogai system produces goods that are staples of such vendors as Walmart and Amazon, only some of which monitor their suppliers for human rights violations. She suggests a system to certify that goods are laogai free: “Until there is such a label, perhaps we can reduce unnecessary consumption”—good advice in and of itself.
Bottom line: If a product is made in China, this book reveals, it’s likely made by prisoners.
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Did you know? Lists of our new releases are available in-person at the library and online so that you never miss a new release.
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Seeing is believing
After sending my newsletter last week, I realized it was all text and no pictures. Sometimes we have to see something to believe it. Here are some visuals from the annual report. You can view it in full here.
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Thank you for being a library champion. You make a difference each day!
--Vince Giordano
Librarian and Director of the Juniata County Library.
P.S.- You don't need to make an account or jump through any hoops to be a library champion. I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true. You can make this happen in less than a minute. Just click here.