The only way by which Library materials can best be accessed and retrieve with ease is by using the library catalogue.
A Library catalogue is a finding list of books and other materials available in the Library. It follows therefore that no meaningful use of the resources in the library can be attained without an understanding of the Library catalogue. The following Library catalogues are available in the Library:
- Manual Catalogue
- Automated Catalogue – Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
Manual Catalogue: Consists of “3 by 5” cards which contain information about each and every book in the library. The catalogue consists of Author, title and subject cards for every book. The Author and Title cards are arranged together in alphabetical order from A – Z thus forming the Author/Title catalogue and the subject cards are also arranged in alphabetical order.
Manual Catalogue
Author/Title Catalogue: This is an alphabetical listing of all books and related materials (except serials) in the library according to their authors and/or titles.
The author of a publication may be a person or a corporate body while the former can be traced under his surname, a corporate body like institutions, societies, government can be traced by the first word of its name without A, An, or The.
Where the authors, are more than three or the authors name is not known, such book can be traced using its title. A reader can therefore locate a Library book by its author/s or title.
The Authors Corporate name and title entries are inter-filed or arranged together in the Author/Title Catalogue in an alphabetical order. This approach allows a reader to easily identify all the works of a given author and the different edition (if any) of the works held in the Library.
Click Author/Title Card, Corporate Author Card and Subject Card to view samples.
Subject Catalogue: The Library has simplified the retrieval process by classifying books according to the subjects they treat, this catalogue is an alphabetical listing of all the subjects covered by the books and related materials (except Serials) in the Library.
Books and other related materials on a given subject are found listed under the appropriate subject headings and arranged alphabetically by author or by title where there is no author.
Thus, a reader who does not have a particular author or title in mind but wants to write a paper on a given subject with which he is not quite familiar with is advised to use the subject approach.
All subject entries are arranged in the Catalogue in an alphabetical order to enable a reader see at a glance, the books that are available in the library on a particular subject. Note the sample of the subject catalogue above.