Scribes Says 'Take A Book Home Each Night'

It's no secret that I am a fan of Scribes. The research tip this week was to learn your library and take a book home each night.
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Scribes Research Tip No. 16:  Take a Book Home Each Night

It's extremely valuable to know what resources are available and what are their strengths and weaknesses before the need to use them arises. Whether your library is large or small, learn what it has.

One technique is to take a book home and browse through it, not to learn a specific point but to learn about the book. Does it have forms that might be helpful in the future? Are there good checklists? Was it peer reviewed before publication? Is there a clear bias or is the book neutral in presentation? How does it compare to other books on the subject? Is it well indexed? Get comfortable enough with the book to know whether it will help you on a rush project or be a waste of time.

If you take a book home once or twice a week and perform this sort of review, you'll see the benefits almost immediately in your ability to find the information you need.
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This is exactly what librarians do every day. When we help patrons find resources, we make mental notes of our library's resources that were particularly helpful to answer a specific question. That's part of what makes this profession a life long learning experience.

Of course it's not a bad idea to become familiar with your own library's resources, but make sure to also ask a librarian for help because there's a very good chance that the librarian can lead you to specific resources that will be helpful to you.


By Unnamed WPA photographer (WPA photo Via [1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Librarian_working_at_the_Pointe_Coupee_Parish_Parish_library_in_New_Roads_Louisiana_in_1936.jpg

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