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FOR GROUP 1
How to use the school library to assist with Group 1 IBDP: a short guide for students
This short information guide to using the Literature section in the Secondary School Library is to help IBDP Group 1 students to use the library more effectively.
How to find Fiction in the Library
Because there is so much of it, fiction books are shelved separately. The order is alphabetical, by the author’s last or family name (sometimes called surname). In most schools, the fiction is divided into two parts – one for younger students, and the other for older students and adults in the school – and that is the case at BPS.
How to find other Literature and Information about Literature
All other aspects of literature are classified in the non-fiction part of the school library according to the Dewey Decimal Classification (which is used in many libraries in the world). For literature, the base number 800 (in North America, this is referred to as the ‘call number’) is used. The following table will help you to find information in this section:
800 General books on literature and the theory of literature
808.5 Books about debating
808.82 Books of Monologues
How to find English language, Poetry and Drama
820 Literature in English (whether UK, North American, Australian, etc.)
820.9 History of literature
821 Poetry by individual poets. For example, if you want poems by Auden, look at the call number 821 AUD, if Langston Hughes, look at 821 HUG. As well as the poetry, books of biography and criticism about individual poets are kept at the same number, so you only have one place to look.
821.08 Books of anthologies of poetry – where poems are by more than one writer.
822 Plays by individual dramatists. For example, if you want a play by Beckett, look at 822 BEC, or Caryl Churchill, then look at 822 CHU.
822.08 Anthologies of plays, where the collection includes plays by more than one dramatist.
How to find Information about Shakespeare
As there are so many books about Shakespeare, they are further divided, so that people can find
information more easily. At BPS library, it is done in the following way:
822.3 This is the main call number for works by and about Shakespeare. Then:
822.3 Individual Plays. If you want the text or critical commentary or DVD of a play, they are grouped together, wherever possible, by the title of the play. For example, for items regarding Hamlet, go to 822.3 HAM, for Romeo and Juliet, go to 822.3 ROM. Collected works are at 822.3 WOR. Then:
822.303 General information about the plays
822.307 Performing Shakespeare plays
822.308 Retellings of plays
822.309 Biographical and historical information about Shakespeare, the person
How to find information about novels and novelists
823 Critical works and biographies of novelists, for example, if you want to find information about Joseph Conrad, go to 823 CON, if you want Doris Lessing, go to 823 LES.
How to find Information about World Literatures
These are the call numbers for other world literatures
830 German literature
839 Scandinavian literature (e.g. Ibsen)
840 French literature
850 Italian literature
860 Spanish literature
870 Latin literature
880 Greek literature
891.7 Russian literature
895.1 Chinese literature
895.6 Japanese literature
895.9 Thai literature (translated into English)
What other Resources are there in the Library to Assist Group 1 Students?
• Reference section (call number 800 – 899) contains encyclopedias and specialist reference items about Literature.
• The periodical or magazine section contains items which have reviews and articles about works of literature.
• The Language section (call number 400) has information about the history and development of language.
• The drama section (call number 792) has information about performing and producing works of literature on the stage and in film.
Please ask the library staff for any further information.