Locating+Nonfiction+Sources

Why Use Nonfiction?
Many students gravitate towards the Internet when they are conducting research, but to research thoroughly and to find some great sources, why not consider using books as well? The A. C. Reynolds Media Center prides itself on its nonfiction collection, and we work each year to ensure that our students have the nonfiction sources that they need. Have you not thought about checking the card catalog for sources before? Here are some reasons why you might:

If you would like to find some of the books in our collection to use as sources, the process is a little different from finding fiction books. Our fiction books are organized by genre--the horror books are in one section, the romance books in another, the science fiction in a third. Our nonfiction holdings are organized by the Dewey Decimal System, and while we are working to publicize some sections of the nonfiction collection, we're not there yet. The books are organized numerically depending on the content that they contain, and once you've practiced once or twice, you should be able to track down the sources you need quickly, even when the network is down.

Presentation: Navigating Our Nonfiction
To understand the Media Center's nonfiction organization, take a look at the attached PowerPoint presentation--it'll take less than two minutes, and at presentation's end, you should have your nonfiction bearings. Open the file, click "Slide Show", and then click "View Slide Show." If you want to review a slide, use your up and down arrows to move around in the presentation.



Now Find What You Are Looking For
Now that you have a working understanding of navigating the nonfiction by using the Dewey system, use this as a reference to get a general idea of where your sources are. In the diagram, you are facing the end of the bookshelves. Also, look for the small numbers in the silver frames to see which Dewey numbers are where.