Usage of library services efficiently & Online Searching Techniques

Library is a collection of resources accommodating for public access with the purpose of reading in order to improve the knowledge in any area (Library laws, 1996). Audio English.net (2014) stated that library is a room or a building containing collection of books, periodicals, records and journals where individuals can read or borrow. As per Oxford Dictionaries (2014) Library is a building or room holding books, periodicals, and occasionally movies and recorded music for the usage of public or the members of the library.

Online Library Learning Centre (2014) specified that libraries can be divided into 3 main categories, they are,

Academic library - The fundamental reason for this library is to help the teaching and the research of a specific college or university, it is relatively bigger when compared with a public library and it doesn't hold any non-academic material.

Public library - These kind of libraries provide popular best sellers, repair manuals and self-improvement books, it hardly holds any academic material.

Special library - This sort of libraries essentially serves for unique purpose, may hold both academic and non-academic books or not, for instance government libraries, business institutions, cooperate sector etc.

Each library has a unique identifier to simplify the search of books inside the library, for instance in the APIIT library the search code for a programming book for C++ is, 005.133. C++ 118/8.

In this code,

§  005.133 represent the location (005) and the subject (133),

§  C++ is the extension of subject in the alphabetical order,

§  118/8 is the item/shelf number (118) and the edition of the book (8).

Search Techniques

A search engine is a software program that searches for sites based on the words that user designate as search terms (Boswell, 2014). In search engines, use of proper syntax always provide a good result. Google, Yahoo!, Baidu and Bing are few examples for search engines.

According to Colombia (2014) following are some search strategies,

§  Keywords - This is useful when search synonyms that are related to the keyword. For example: Searching for “couch” and we can also use “sofa” as keyword.

§  Using of Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT.

·         AND Operator - This will narrow the search and combine different ideas. (E.g., Principles and Betting, this results the principles related to betting)

·         OR Operator - This use for combine words with similar idea. (E.g., Couch or sofa)

·         NOT Operator - This will exclude the unwanted words. (E.g., Food NOT Vegetarian, this results non-vegetarian food)

§  Phrase searching - This will search the exact expression adding different word endings or plurals. In this method the word should be within quotes. (E.g., “Globalization”)

§  Nesting - This method keeps similar concepts together, and tells a search engine to search those terms placed in parentheses first. For example, using (Iraq OR Kuwait) AND oil will search Iraq or Kuwait first. (Penn State University Libraries, 2014)

§  Truncation and Wildcards- These methods can expand the search scope with uses different symbols such as an asterisk (*), question mark (?), or pound sign (#). For example protect* OR conserve* OR regulat* would retrieve multiple spellings of these synonyms. (Gemini, 2013)

References

Audio English.net, 2014. Library. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/library.htm [Accessed 06 January 2014]

Boswell. W. 2014. How Does a Search Engine Work? - Learn About Search Engines and How They Work. [ONLINE] Available at: http://websearch.about.com/od/enginesanddirectories/a/searchengine.htm. [Accessed 06 January 2014]

Colombia. 2014. Keyword Search. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/help/clio/keyword.print.html. [Accessed 06 January 2014]

Gemini. 2013. Search strategies. [ONLINE] Available at: http://gemini.lib.purdue.edu/core/files/strategies1c.html. [Accessed 06 January 2014]

Library laws 1996. The Definition of a Library. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.librarylaws.com/ [Accessed 06 January 2014]

Online Library Learning Center, 2014. What is a Library? [Online] Available at: http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit03/libraries03_02.phtml [Accessed 06 January 2014]

Oxford dictionaries. 2014. Definition of library. [ONLINE] Available at: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/library. [Accessed 06 January 2014]

Penn State University Libraries. 2014. Search - AND-OR-NOT, Limit, Nesting, Phrase, Punctuation, Substitution, and Truncation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/cathelps/adv_search_opt.html. [Accessed 06 January 2014]