1. The document proposes incorporating bibliographic and library instruction into college courses to teach students how to search and browse classified and indexed knowledge. By learning to use library tools for coursework, students would learn both course concepts and how to use library resources. 2. The author suggests starting instruction by examining elements of printed books, like bibliographic descriptions, indexes, footnotes and bibliographies. Comparing these elements to online library catalog records would show students how libraries organize and provide access to information. 3. Activities like searching for sources cited in footnotes or browsing by call numbers could demonstrate how libraries classify knowledge and how research is conducted within academic disciplines. The goal is for students to understand differences between informal online

1. Teaching Students about Searching and Browsing Classified and
Indexed Knowledge: incorporating bibliographical
and library instruction into college courses
by Gwen Williams
seealso@me.com
7 October 2004 presentation to UMKC Faculty, Librarians,
and Reference Librarian Search Committee
Audience and purpose: Presentation to teaching
faculty on ways to incorporate bibliographical and
library instruction into college courses. For by learning
how to consult various library tools while conducting
research for actual course requirements, students would
learn not only the conceptual subject matter for the
course, but also would learn how to consult the library
and its resources for further learning and knowing.
The various activities that people do when looking for resources
can be described as searching and browsing activities. This seems to
hold whether we are looking for print resources or for the current
jackpot—electronic resources, full text, easily downloadable in PDF,
easily downloadable so we can print copies on our laser printers.
We would all likely agree today’s undergraduate students have
developed facility and ease in using search engines and browsing
techniques for navigating the web for various resources and various
reasons. We would also likely agree one of the tasks for educators of
today’s college students is to figure out ways to explain the differences
between, on the one hand, searching and browsing the web for
potential research paper sources and on the other, searching and
browsing the published literature in books and journals. We may hope
that once students understand these differences in searching and
browsing, they will also understand these are differences beyond
Copyright 2004 Williams.
This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0.
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2. criteria for publishing. We may hope they will come to understand that
searching and browsing the published literature, available through
libraries, are acts of searching and browsing classified and indexed
knowledge.
Moreover, once students understand the differences between the
web and the recognized, published literature, I believe they will not
only select the published literature over “Kim’s Great Guide to Great
Plays and Homepage of Favorite Cajun Recipes” but that they will also
be quite happy to do so. Ultimately, they will also be better prepared to
analyze and critique the credibility and authority claims of web
resources they retrieve through Googling or following hyperlinks, skills
that each of us deploy when we search and browse the web.
Understanding these differences seems especially important for
our students given that e-books are now available and appear poised to
become ever more important for higher education in the near-future.
Students will need a clear understanding of the print book in order to
know an e-textbook on any subject is nearer a print book than it is to a
website.
We already know that students, until they encounter scholarly
journals during their university studies, tend to believe that by
periodicals we mean to suggest only newspapers or wide-circulation
magazines, readily available in bookstores, convenience stores, and
often online. And why should they think otherwise? Their experience
and knowledge indicates that they can find some periodical literature
on the web. Moreover, this online reading experience and knowledge
seem intertwined with their initial confusion when we discourage
searching and browsing the web for research paper sources. For it is
probably often the case that when a student reads a newspaper article
online and desires to read more on the particular subject, that he or she
then proceeds to the use of a search engine, and thus encounters more
web resources—maybe more newspaper articles, maybe even Kim’s
website, if Kim has purchased a high ranking slot in the results display
from Google. Little does the Googling student know he or she is
embarking on the searching of an index, similar to say, Lexis-Nexis, in
one respect: it is an index pointing to resources. But, unlike Lexis-
Nexis, it is an index ordered on different principles, of a mostly
exclusive commercial nature, and generally based on automated
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3. machine extraction of words, as opposed to an indexing resource
constructed on principles of classification by subjects and by periodical
type. But ultimately, I believe student confusion about searching and
browsing the web for research paper sources results because students
do not yet have a clear understanding of the periodical as such.
Moreover, as institutional digital repositories are planned,
collected, constructed, and distributed in multimedia formats,
understanding the principles of indexing and classifying knowledge, as
exemplified by our practices in librarianship, will greatly enhance the
ability of persons to search and browse these rich, often unique, often
archival, resources. Students will especially need an understanding of
indexing and classifying knowledge if they are to participate in these
exciting repository endeavors, be it as contributors or researchers.
I would argue the foundations for this understanding lies within
our students learning how to search and browse the classified and
indexed knowledge in books and journals. I believe it is possible to
educate students on these matters by focusing our initial attention on
objects much more concrete than objects in and of the digital realm:
we can teach these important principles by focusing on the print book
and the print journal. I also believe it is possible to educate our
students on these matters by incorporating bibliographical and library
instruction into courses. For by learning how to consult various library
tools while conducting research for actual course requirements,
students would learn not only the conceptual subject matter for the
course, but also would learn how to consult the library and its
resources for further learning and knowing.
I am astonished whenever I encounter students who know little
about the elements of a book, including the bibliographical description,
very useful for compiling works cited pages for papers and used to
construct library catalog records, found on the title and verso pages; the
notation apparatus, be they footnotes or endnotes, which opens
multiple possibilities or trails to follow in researching; the ready-made
bibliography at the end of the book, carefully compiled by the author,
enabling readers to search for known works and to assess the
comprehensiveness of the author’s own researching work; and the
back-of-the-book index, which points toward particular passages in the
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4. work itself. But my astonishment fades rather quickly when I remember
that of course, someone, at some point, most often one of my university
teachers, pointed these elements out to me. I did not know of such
things until an educator explained them to me, even though I had long
loved books and reading in general. Now I rarely, if ever, purchase a
book before consulting the index or the bibliography. I even know a
few historians who thoroughly browse the index, bibliography, and
notation apparatus before committing to a purchase. Perhaps all of us
do such searching and browsing, or some such comparable first
assessment of books before we buy, or are willing to commit precious
reading time. Of course, like many of you, I have my known authors, or
known works, or known subjects, that I don’t need to do this with—I
just grab it and go.
These four elements of a book—the bibliographical description
found on title and verso pages, notation apparatus, bibliography, and
back-of-the-book index—can provide the points of departure for talking
to students about searching and browsing classified and indexed
knowledge, as organized in libraries.
By beginning from the book itself, I would suggest that the
organization of and possibilities for using the library’s online catalog
will become clearer to students, as they will be able to see the
connections between the elements of the book itself and the
bibliographic catalog record that stands as a surrogate record for the
book in the library’s online catalog. It’s no secret to us that the library
catalog record is an entry point for further browsing (or searching) by
subject headings online, and is an entry point to the library shelves, by
indicating where in the entire ensemble of the classification of books
the researcher needs to go: but these might be secrets to our students
unless we make them evident.
Also, by beginning from the book itself, students could be shown
and asked to use the back-of-the-book index to locate particular
passages within the book. Not only will this benefit students quite
directly if the index you ask them to consult is for a textbook for a class,
but they will also begin to understand the concept of indexing itself and
its vital, important feature: it points the reader toward relevant passages.
In understanding the back-of-the-book index, students would than have
a concrete example to return to when they are asked to use an index to
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5. periodical literature to find relevant articles that will hopefully contain
relevant passages needed for their research.
Finally, by beginning from the book itself, students will perhaps
be more inclined to return to their books—their textbooks, even—when
given assignments to develop essays demonstrating their mastery of
core concepts, or to embark upon developing researched semester
papers. Particularly observant students of the author’s bibliography and
notation apparatus might just conclude that they have already been
given plenty of leads on potential library resources, right within the
covers of their textbooks; and that all they need to begin is to search the
library online catalog, or the library’s indexes to periodical literature.
Imagine the focused and in-depth student writing that would be
possible, and probable, if a student began at a concept from the back-
of-the-book index, located relevant passages within the book, followed
the footnotes to discover sources concerned with this concept, and
searched the library catalog and indexes for the sources given in these
particular footnotes!
A student introduction to these four elements of the book could
be easily accomplished in a computerized classroom; a classroom that
only has networked capabilities for the lecturer; or of course in library
laboratories used for instructional purposes. For, ideally, this student
introduction should enable them to hold books in their hands and
consult corresponding catalog records online. But, such an
introduction could even occur in a classroom that has no networking
capabilities at all. For the non-networked classroom space, either
photocopies of a catalog record or merely one overhead slide of a
catalog record would seem sufficient for students to be able to compare
a library’s catalog record with the Library of Congress Cataloging-In-
Publication Data printed in his or her book: this seems it would work
especially well if the students were examining the same work—a
required textbook for the class, for example.
Your handout contains the verso page, an index page, a
bibliography page, and a page with footnotes from Peter Brown’s The
Body and Society. If this were a non-networked space, I would have
included a photocopy of the MERLIN catalog record for this book. But
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6. I’ll retrieve the MERLIN catalog record, so we can make a side-by-side
comparison, book to screen.
A side-by-side comparison of the catalog record and the book
should make evident to students that various terms one would use to
search a library catalog for a book comes from the book, such as title
and author, or ISBN. Students would also be delighted to know all the
information they need to construct bibliographies for their papers,
regardless of documentation style, are found in two places: the book
itself and the library catalog record. Students might also be delighted to
know they can order books from bookstores by simply giving the order-
taker the ISBN.
If the student introduction took place in a networked space of
some sort, the catalog record could also be used as a point of entry into
browsing by subject heading assignments, as links are provided. As we
know, when searching by subject headings, see also references are
frequently provided, suggesting broader, narrower, or related search
terms for the researcher. The see also option in the online catalog
functions like the see also entry in a back-of-the-book index: it points
the reader toward more possibilities—toward additional relevant
passages, in the case of the back-of-the book index, or toward
additional relevant subject headings assigned for books, in the case of
the online catalog. We might also tell our students the ability to search
the subject field of records, the ability to browse by subject heading
assignments, and the see also option in the online catalog, are all
possible because the subject heading record fields have, in fact, been
indexed.
Based on my experience as a teacher of college English, and as
many librarians could certainly attest, many undergraduate students—
and sometimes graduate students—have yet to understand the
fundamental organizing principle followed by libraries in ordering
books on shelves: that books are ordered by subject matter according
to a bibliographical classification scheme.
Again, in a networked space, students could locate the given
Cataloging-In-Publication data in their books, and compare this to the
LC call number assigned in the catalog record. Perhaps discussions
about classifying could result if the two do not match exactly—and by
classifying I mean to suggest not only the specificity of the classifying
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7. performed in libraries, but also the practice of classifying evident across
and within all disciplines. Also, because MERLIN enables a browsing
of catalog records by call number, students could browse online in a
manner somewhat similar to physically browsing the shelves. In fact,
maybe the capability to browse a library’s call numbers online makes
more evident what the library call number is: it is not simply a shelf-
locator (although it does do that), but rather is a classified marking of a
book that puts a book in relation to all other books within the library.
Whether students realize it or not, every time they approach library
shelves, they are approaching a classification scheme of knowledge.
I have found that asking students to locate their majors within the
general LC Classification Scheme, at the level of main classes and sub-
classes, seems illuminating for them. For when they consider their
majors in relation to the entire classification scheme, they discover how
the library is organized overall; they find places within the scheme that
are likely of interest to them; and they realize that books are shelved in
a manner that corresponds well with how subjects are taught across the
various disciplines.
There is still another possible activity for students to learn that
resources in libraries are classified by branches of knowledge and
would involve the books they hold in their hands. They could, in a
networked classroom space, be asked to consult the footnotes and
locate five titles of books cited as sources in the footnotes. After
locating their five sources, they could search the library catalog for
each source, by title or by author. Upon retrieving their catalog
records, they could jot down each item’s call number, thus creating a
list of five call numbers. I have not tried this with my students, but I
suspect students would all generate a list of call numbers from the same
main class, likely the same sub-class, and perhaps even call numbers
that would place the five books in very close proximity to each other.
This particular activity could lead to all sorts of possible discussions
about conducting research, reviewing the literature, constructing
arguments, and knowing in your discipline, even as students would be
learning that books in libraries are ordered by subject matter according
to a bibliographical classification scheme.
Insofar as examining the notation apparatus and bibliography of a
book are concerned, multiple possibilities for combining this with
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8. library instruction exist. In particular, it might be useful for students to
consult the books in their hands, identifying articles cited by the author.
Not only would students literally see the differences between proper
citation of books and of journal articles, but they might also more
clearly see the need to know not only the article’s title, but also the
journal’s title when they set out to make their photocopies at the library
or to download their PDFs to their computers. In fact, it seems likely
some journals listed in the bibliography would be listed more than
once, under more than one article: this may seem obvious to us, but to
students, in particular undergraduate students, I imagine this could be
quite a revelation, and would greatly benefit them when they come to
the library (in person, or through a networked connection) to search
and browse journal literature.
Moreover, examining the notation apparatus and bibliography of
book has multiple possibilities for learning that would not necessarily
be library instruction per se. That is, for those educators and courses
concerned with studying history or with having students research using
primary sources, discussion about the differences between primary
sources and secondary sources could begin from studying a
bibliography in a history book. Peter Brown’s bibliography to The Body
and Society is divided into primary sources and secondary sources, as
all bibliographies for histories are. Students studying history and
historical processes would benefit from developing an understanding of
the differences between primary and secondary sources, of the
sequential order of the bibliography itself (primary before secondary,
always), of the types of resources consulted. I perhaps need to alter a
previous statement I made: maybe this sort of classroom activity would
implicitly be library, special collections, manuscripts, and archives
instruction after all.
With respect to educating students about searching and browsing
periodical literature, in particular, scholarly journals, a cumulative
subject index seems an especially valuable tool. Cumulative subject
indexes could be studied in non-networked classroom spaces by
providing students photocopies of index pages. In addition, the
cumulative subject index to a solitary journal can be compared to the
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9. back-of-the-book index, in that both are indexes to a solitary
bibliographical title, each possessing a library catalog record.
A well-written cumulative subject index could be interesting for
students to study for many reasons, not the least of which is that it
ought to reveal the overall contours, core concepts and definitions, and
various lines of argument in a discipline’s periodical literature, even
though the index is confined to a solitary journal. Even a fairly
outdated cumulative subject index may prove useful for students to
study, especially if one sees merit in Henry Evelyn Bliss’ contentions
about the relative stability and permanence of the organization of
knowledge, as determined by the disciplines themselves, over time. For
example, I imagine most undergraduates, after having taken an
introductory course to sociology or having roomed with sociology
majors, would likely conclude the 1966-1970 index table of contents
page in your handout is concerned with a sociology journal. And they
would be correct, as it taken from the 1966-1970 index for American
Sociological Review. I am very certain students would not conclude
this is an index to a botany or mathematics journal. Moreover, when
students study a cumulative subject index to a journal, they are being
asked to study a specific classified portion of the scholarly literature, a
specific solitary title, before venturing into the vastness of the literature
available through electronic index and abstracting services.
Of course the various activities I described with respect to the
book could be re-fashioned so as to apply to examining the periodical
literature. For we know, and we would want our students to know,
scholarly journals also have bibliographical descriptive elements for
making records and for writing reference pages for their papers;
footnote and endnote apparatuses; and bibliographies. We also know
that delving into scholarly literature will proceed by searching and
browsing indexes, such as cumulative indexes for a journal as its own
entity, or indexes that point to many journals, such as JSTOR, or Project
Muse, to name but two.
I chose this subject today because I suspect that you, as
classroom teachers, encounter students each semester, who seem to
have the same questions, who seem to not quite understand what we
mean when we aim to explain the differences between, on the one
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10. hand, searching and browsing the web for potential research paper
sources and on the other, searching and browsing the published
literature in books and journals. I know I have encountered such
students in my classroom, and that librarians encounter such students
in the library. I do hope I have provided you with ways to approach
this vexing situation by suggesting that we should plan ways to educate
our students on what it means to search and browse as they study and
learn their coursework. I believe we should plan for opportunities for
them to learn and understand that searching and browsing the
published literature, available through libraries, are acts of searching
and browsing classified and indexed knowledge. I also believe
students can begin this learning and understanding by searching and
browsing the elements of something they carry in their backpacks—
right next to their cell phones, multi-function scientific calculators, and
iPods—something they can hold in their hands: the book.
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11. References
Bliss, Henry Evelyn, The Organization of Knowledge and the System of
the Sciences, with introduction by John Dewey, New York: Henry Holt
and Company, 1929.
____, The Organization of Knowledge in Libraries and the Subject-
approach to Books, 2nd ed., New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1939.
Grafton, Anthony, The Footnote: A Curious History, Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1997.
Kelley, Grace, The Classification of Books, New York: H.W. Wilson
Company, 1937.
____, “The Classification of Books in Retrospect and in Prospect: A Tool
and a Discipline.” In, William M. Randall, ed., The Acquisition and
Cataloging of Books (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940), p.
163-186.
Knight, G. Norman, Indexing, the Art of: A Guide to the Indexing of
Books and Periodicals, London: Allan & Unwin, 1979.
Lynch, Clifford, “Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure For
Scholarship in The Digital Age,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, vol.
3, no. 2 (2003): 327-336.
Ranganathan, Shiyali Ramamrita, Elements of Library Classification. 2nd
ed., revised. Ed., B.I. Palmer. London: The Association of Assistant
Librarians, 1959.
____, Prolegomena to Library Classification. 2nd edition. London: The
Library Association, 1957.
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