SCCC 280A, 281A, 285A and University 201
Fundamentals of Inquiry
Library Instruction Week #3

Self-Assessment questions:

1. Have you completed a tour yet, either of the actual building or of the electronic resources?
2. Is it confusing or have you got it down to a science?
3. Do you know where the books and journals related to your interests are located?

After your real and virtual tour you must realize that this is a very big library. It is actually 7 floors, each approximately 1 acre in size. The present collection exceeds two million volumes and it is growing every day. In addition to what you see here, there are many thousands of books and journals in temporary storage at the annex which can be retrieved very quickly.

The USC-Columbia Libraries are organized in many ways. There are subject libraries. There are divisions within the library system. There are divisions identified by function. The books and journals are arranged by Library of Congress call numbers which are based on LC subject headings. Information Resources are also organized according to format. There is a film library. Microforms and newspapers are kept in a certain area as are government documents, maps and rare or important books. We have even tried to organize cyberspace with special places for online books, journals, databases and what ever else we might have in digital format. The remainder of this lesson and the entire series is actually about how library materials are organized and how you can access them.

In addition to the Thomas Cooper Library, there are several other locations for material and collections. Many literary treasures are in Special Collections on the Mezzanine. The history of South Carolina is amply represented in The South Caroliniana Library located on the Horseshoe. There is also a Music and a Business Library, both located in their respective buildings. The Mathematics Department still maintains a departmental library in La Conte. The film library is presently located at the corner of Wheat and Main Streets, around the corner from the campus post office. One part of the library that you might never see is the Annex. Approximately 25% of the Thomas Cooper holdings are kept there.

• Circulation (Main Level),where you check books out and in, pay fines,etc.
• the Computer Lab (Level 5), a few hundred of the best computers in the library for you to use. There are also special tools here like scanners as well as complete servicesfor the disabled reader.
• Education (Level 5), here are the materials for our Education Majors. You will also find an excellent collection of children's and young adults books as well as most thesis and dissertations written since 1995.
• Government Documents (Level 5),not only are we a federal depository, but our documents librarians are expert guides to federal and state materials as well as materials at other depositories and libraries.
• Interlibrary Loan (Level 5)
- provides you access to all of the other libraries.
• The Map Library (Level 5), maps of the entire world as well as huge travel-book collection
• Microforms and Newspapers (Level 5), located in the Government Documents area
• Reference (Main Level), probably the most interesting place in the library with all sorts of refence books on every subject. There are also a lot of clever librarians who will be glad to show you how all of those computers work.
• Reserve (Main Level). Some very popular newspapers and magazines are on "Reserve." Professors often put class materials on reserve. This means that you can check them out long enough to read a chapter or an article but then the book goes back on the shelf so that someone else can borrow it.
• Science (Level 4). Here are the books, journals, reference materials and librarians associated with science, medicine and technology or with the call numbers Q throgh T.
• Special Collections & Rare Books (Mezzanine). Here are the treasures of the library. Although this is a closed collection, Professor Scott and his team continually provide the USC community with special displays, celebrating either particular authors, genres or events.

All of the materials in TCL are organized, as you would expect, using a catalog. In this case it is a digital one, called USCAN. Although there is only one catalog, there are two interfaces. One is the original and is on a black screen. The newer one, referred to as USCAN Web is a white screen and can be accessed anywhere there is an Internet connection. The new web-based version seems easier to use and easier to read. However the older USCAN Classic has proven itself a bit more reliable and seems to be favored by more librarians than the new, improved version.These will be covered in more detail in another lesson.

• Level 1 A-D
• Level 2 E-K
• Level 3 N-P
• Level 4 Q-S Science & Medicine
• Level 5 -L, Education
• Mezzanine T-Z Technology, Engineering, Military Science and LIbrary Science
Please Note: There are also Mathematics, Music and a Business Library on campus, as well as the South Caroliniana and Law Libraries.

Action Items:

• Think about what you have learned in the previous lessons and tours and see how todays information fits in.
• Revisit the library or the lesson, if you detect an information gap.
• On your next meeting with a librarian, introduce yourself and start to build a relationship with them.

Questions for understanding:

1. Are you developing a sense of how to navigate in the library?
2. Can you see how it will be a part of the Inquiry experience?
3. Can you think of some questions that you might start to research in the Reference Section?

Terms used or needed:

• Annex - an off-campus facility that stores, repairs and preserves library materials. Books and journals that are old, seldom used or in a fragile state are stored there. Items are brought from the annex twice a day.
• Catalog - an organized listing of what is in a particular collection. In the case of USC Libraries, our catalog is called USCAN.
• Reference Materials - Dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and atlases are representative of the type of material that you can expect to find in the reference collection. You can also expect some excellent help from the reference librarians.

The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed.

2. The information literate student identifies a variety of types and formats of potential sources for information.

• A. Knows how information is formally and informally produced, organized, and disseminated

SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION DEFINED Scholarly communication is the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use. The system includes both formal means of communication, such as publication in peer-reviewed journals, and informal channels, such as electronic mailing lists. One of the fundamental characteristics of scholarly research is that it is created as a public good to facilitate inquiry and knowledge. A substantial portion of such research is publicly supported, either directly through federally funded research projects or indirectly through state support of researchers at state higher-education institutions. In addition, the vast majority of scholars develop and disseminate their research with no expectation of direct financial reward.
(derived from Principles and strategies for the reform of scholarly communication: Issues related to the formal system of scholarly communication,ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee, adopted June 24, 2003. College & Research Libraries News, vol 64 no8, pp 526-7, 547. Sept. 2003.

• B. Recognizes that knowledge can be organized into disciplines that influence the way information is accessed (e.g., a chemist's formula or patent application, a social worker's case study or a historian's 5 volume book)
• C. Identifies the value and differences of potential resources in a variety of formats (e.g., multimedia, database, website, data set, audio/visual, book)
• D. Identifies the purpose and audience of potential resources (e.g., popular vs. scholarly, current vs. historical)
• E. Differentiates between primary and secondary sources, recognizing how their use and importance vary with each discipline (primary sources usually refer either to original research or original publications. Secondary sources usually describe or consist of material derived from the primary sources.)
• F. Realizes that information may need to be constructed with raw data from primary sources (it might be easier to consult the census rather than count all of the people in your town and their related characteristics.)