1. BOOKS: THEIR HISTORY, ORGANIZATION
AND RETRIEVAL

2. Part One:
THE HISTORY
OF BOOKS

3. Writing Methods Before the Invention of the Book.
Stone Tablets Animal Skin

4. Ancient people
also wrote on :
• Silk in China
• Dried Palm
Leaves in India
• Wood on
Easter Island
Rongorong: Writing on Wood
from Easter Island

5. The ancient
Egyptians made
a type of paper
from the
Papyrus plant.
The Papyrus
“paper” was
glued together
into scrolls.
The Egyptians
used a
sharpened reed
or bird feather
as a “pen”.

6. Paper as we know
it was invented in
China around
100AD.
It eventually was
used as:
Wrapping paper
Writing paper
Toilet paper
Tea bag paper The Diamond Sutra (868ce) is the
world’s oldest known book. It was
Paper money created by woodblock printing.

7. • The Codex replaced
the Scroll by the
fourth century BC.
• The codex is a
book created by
binding many sheets
together at one end.
• The codex will stay
open on a table, and
it provides direct
access to any page.
• An index can be
Founders and Benefactors book of
added to the last
pages of the book.
Tewkesbury Abbey (16th century).

8. In Christian
Europe, monks spent
their days next to the
windows in scriptoria
copying books by
hand.
It could take years to
copy and decorate a
single book, so books
were very rare.
Western knowledge
was preserved by this
hand copying
process, but the
scarcity of books
prevented the spread
of knowledge.
Monk copying a book in the scriptorium.

9. Before 1440:
People rarely
traveled beyond the
distance they could
walk in a day.
Most people could
not read.
There was no way
to share knowledge.
There was no:
•• Telephone
•• Telegraph
•• Email
•• Internet
Medieval Farm
•• Postal service

10. But around 1440 the world
changed because of the invention
of one man:
JOANNAS
GUTENBURG

11. In Germany,
Johannas Gutenburg:
• improved oil based
ink
• improved the
printing press
• invented movable
type
Those inventions led
to the MASS
PRODUCTION OF
BOOKS!
Johannas Gutenburg

12. Books no longer
need to be hand
copied or carved
on a wood block
page by page.
Instead a page
of a book was
“typeset” by
putting each
letter in its
correct place
until the page
was complete. Movable type and composing stick

13. The printing
press made it
possible to print
many copies of
each page.
This reduced the
cost of
bookmaking
and allowed for
the mass
production of
Man on right is inking the type.
books.
Man on left is removing paper from
the press.

14. Availability of books led
to:
Sharing of scientific
information , which led
to the industrial
revolution and
improved farming.
Sharing of medical
knowledge , which led to
better health care.
Sharing of philosophical
and religious ideas
, which led to the
Protestant Reformation.
People learned to read Diagram from Gilbert’s De Magnete
because they could (1600), the first book about
afford books.
electricity and magnetism.

15. Martin Luther posted
his “95 Theses” on
the door of All Saints
Church in
Wittenberg, Germany
in 1517.
He was protesting
the sale of
indulgences by the
Catholic Church.
His Theses were
printed and widely
distributed.
This began the Title page from Martin Luther’s
Protestant writings, 1581 edition.
Reformation.

16. We
continue
to print
and read
books
today.
Harry Potter Books

17. Books on
Microfilm
or
Microfiche
When your parents
and grandparents
were in college,
they may have
looked at books on
microfilm or
microfiche. This
was a way libraries
saved stack space.

18. Now we have
newer ways of
storing “books”:
 On Microfilm
or microfiche.
 On the
Internet.
 On Kindle and
similar devices.
Amazon’s Kindle

19. Part Two:
THE ORGANIZATION
OF BOOK
COLLECTIONS

20. Some way
is needed
to
organize
and index
large
collections
of books. Over 275,000 books are published
in the United States each year.

21. The Library
of Congress
Classification
System (LC)
is used to
organize
books in
most college
libraries. Reading Room of the Library of
Congress, Washington, DC

22. What does
the word
“classify”
mean?
To divide
into groups
Classified ads

23. Library of Congress Classification System
• LC DIVIDES KNOWLEDGE INTO 21 BROAD
SUBJECT CATEGORIES
• EACH SUBJECT AREA IS ASSIGNED A LETTER
OR COMBINATION OF LETTERS
• SUBJECTS ARE FURTHER SUBDIVIDED BY
NUMBERS
HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/CATDIR/CPSO/LCCO/

24. Classify a Book
DECIDE WHAT THE BOOK IS
ABOUT (IT’S SUBJECT).
USING THE LC CHART, ASSIGN
THE FIRST TWO LETTER OF THE
LC NUMBER.

25. Book
Labels
Library of
Congress call
numbers are
found on the
spines of
library books.

26. TN = Mining
Engineering
900=Nonmetallic
minerals
K865 = Author’s
last name begins
with K
2003 = Year
published
Parts of a Library of Congress
Classification Number

27. Put Books in Order on the Shelf
• WORK FROM THE TOP LINE DOWN
• THE TOP LINE CONTAINS LETTERS
• THE SECOND LINE CONTAINS WHOLE NUMBERS
• THE THIRD LINE CONTAINS A LETTER FOLLOWED
BY DECIMAL NUMBERS
• THE BOTTOM LINE CONTAINS A DATE

28. Part Three:
FINDING A BOOK
IN A BOOK
COLLECTION

29. What is this
finger
called?
Why?
It is called
the INDEX
finger
because it is
used to
point.

30. An index is a
pointer to
information.
Many books
have an index
on the last few
pages.
The catalog is an
index to the
books (and
other items)
contained in the An old card catalog containing
library. “pointers” to the books in the library.

31. Your Textbook Has an Index in
the Back.
• A “SE E ” R E F ER EN C E TEL L S YO U THA T
YO U M US T L O O K UN DER A DI F F ER EN T
WO R D, THER E I S N O EN TR Y UN DER
THE WO R D YO U L O O KED UP .
• A “S E E A L S O ” R EF ER EN C E G I V ES YO U
A DDI TI O N A L WO R DS YO U C A N L O O K
UP .

32. Library Catalogs are Indexes
(Pointers) to the Books in the
Library
FIND THE TNCC LIBRARY
CATALOG AT:
HTTP://WWW.TNCC.EDU
FIND WORLD CAT AT:
HTTP://WWW.TNCC.EDU

33. Amazon. com Is an Accidental
Index
CREATED TO SELL BOOKS
POINTS TO BOOKS THAT ARE
AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE
HTTP://WWW.AMAZON.COM

34. Reference
books are
books that we
refer to for a
specific piece
of
information.
Reference books usually cannot be
checked out of the library.

35. Homework Assignment
TOPIC SELECTION FORM
CLASSIFICATION EXERCISE
REFERENCE BOOKS AND ONLINE
SOURCES

36. Extra
Credit
Watch the DVD “The
Day the Universe
Changed” by James
Burke.
Disc 2, Program 4 .
(DVD CB69 .S416
1986 Disc 1-2)
“Printing Transforms
Knowledge”

37. Just for fun watch:
YOUTUBE
THE MEDIEVAL HELP DESK
HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.CO
M/WATCH?V=PQHX -SJGQVQ