I have.
This picture is of the Murray Library at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania (about 10 minutes away from Harrisburg). I visited Messiah College yesterday and was in awe. I have never seen this many books in person, ever!
During the tour, we stood on a higher level just looking down on all the books. The other girl and I stood there with our mouths hanging open and not listening to a word the tour guide says.
Oh, this picture is of over 400,000 books!
After the tour, my dad and I went back to the library so I could go look at all the books. I was searching for some authors I knew of. I don't know why, but the Bronte sisters were on my mind the whole time.
I walked through the rows and rows of books, confused. There was no fiction section. The call numbers on the nonfiction were really different.
I went back to my dad really confused. he explained to me that they were organized with the Library of Congress' system.
What? I thought there was only the Dewey Decimal system!
I looked up the new classification, and for what I was looking for, I needed to search for books in the P section.
For those not familiar with this classification, here it is: http://library.duke.edu/services/instruction/libraryguide/lcclass.html
It's a bit too confusing. Even finding a book to read is going to be an adventure!
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3 comments:
I remember feeling that way going from my school library (as a teen) to the university library. Before, I'd always been able to find things the simple way--the alphabet, author's name--it was a whole other world trying to figure out the Library of Congress. But I did get the hang of it after a while :)
That looks beautiful!! Wish I could be lost in a library...
The only ones I've ever been to have been pretty tiny :(
Oh yeah, the difference between a public/school library and a college library! You get to the LoC numbers, I did, and they're actually much more helpful. Now I have to get back used to the Dewey Decimal system!
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