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Books No matter who produces the knowledge it must take some kind of tangible form if people are to understand it. The form in which the knowledge is produced will affect the manner in which people comprehend it. Books, periodicals, newspapers, films, television, and radio all have different audiences and are accessible to different people in different ways. For example, most serious scholarly research is published in books and journals because these forms of publication have been defined by our culture as appropriate for scholarly communication. Occasionally serious research will be presented in the format of film, but usually the film medium is reserved for entertainment in American society. What is a book? The American Heritage Dictionary (3rd ed.) defines a book as: "A set of written, printed, or blank pages fastened along one side and encased between protective covers." This definition appears to be quite straightforward and obvious. However, to be information literate you must understand a number of things about books that you may never have considered. Not all books are the same. Books are commonly divided into the categories of fiction and non-fiction. Fiction books contain material that is not true to life even though the events reported may be based on the real life experience of the author. Characters and scenes are invented by the author to tell a story. Novels and short stories are examples of fiction. Non-fiction books deal with more factual information. All reference books, history, literary criticism, and science books are classed as non-fiction. To confuse matters a little, fiction is itself part of a broader category known as literature. Literature includes works of fiction as well as poetry and memoir. Many people are familiar with works of literature and fiction. People borrow works of fiction from a public library or purchase them from a bookstore. To find a work of fiction we usually just browse the book shelves or seek out a book by a specific author. However, what if we had an assignment in a literature class asking us to locate a work of fiction about a certain subject (e.g., a novel about an American living in Italy during World War I)? How would we do it? If we performed a keyword search in our college library catalog using the words "American", "Italy", "World War I" we would not find anything. If we did a keyword search using just the words "Italy", "World War I" we would find one match, but it would be a book of non-fiction on the causes leading up to World War II. We might give up at this point thinking that our library does not own any books of fiction about an American in Italy during World War I. Of course we would be wrong. Our library does own such a book, entitled A Farewell to Arms, which was written by Ernest Hemingway and originally published in 1929 by Charles Scribner's and Sons. However, the only subject heading that was assigned to the book was: "World War, 1914-1918--Fiction." (We will talk more about subject headings in Lesson 2.) For now, the point we want to make is that not all books are the same and that many books are difficult to locate. Also, just because a book states that it was published during a certain year does not mean that the book was written by the author during that year. Books are often written over a number years, or even a number of decades. Once an author has finished writing her/his book, it may take up to another year before the book is edited and produced by the publisher. Book production is a time-consuming and complex process. Parts of a book There is more to a book than simply the words written in the chapters by the author. Most people do not think much about these other parts of a book, however, a librarian considers these other parts quite important and so should you as a researcher. What are these other parts of a book then? Title page Located at the front of the book. The title page provides the official title of the book (which may be different from what is on the cover); the name of the author or editor; the publisher's name; the place of publication; and sometimes the date of publication. Verso page Located on the back of the title page. The verso page provides more detailed information about the publisher, including the publisher's address; copyright information; cataloging-in-publication information, which is the information libraries use to catalog the book. Cataloging-in publication information is provided by the Library of Congress and includes possible Dewey and Library of Congress classification number and Library of Congress subject headings. You will also find the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) which is a unique number assigned to every book and can be helpful if you wish to order the book from a book store or search for the book in a library catalog. Table of contents Provides a quick introduction to the major sections and topics covered in the book. The table of contents is like a high level road map to the contents of the book. If you want to "zoom in" and get a more detailed lay of the land you must go to the index at the back of the book. Preface and Acknowledgment pages In these pages the author acknowledges those who have helped her/him in writing and preparing the book for publication. The preface also provides the author the opportunity to present additional information about the book or about the writing of the book. Introduction Provides an overview or summary of the material covered in the book. It is a good idea to scan the preface and introduction of a book to get a clear idea of a book's content and the author's point of view and/or bias. Prefaces and introductions are usually found in non-fiction books. List of acronyms, abbreviations, illustrations, etc. Provides information about special features used in the book. Notes and Bibliographies Usually found only in non-fiction books. Notes provide additional information about a topic that the author does not what to insert into the main text of the book. Notes also list the original source of information from which an author got an idea or piece of information. Notes can be located at the bottom of the page (footnotes), or at the end of a chapter, or at the end of the book (endnotes). Bibliographies are usually located at the end of the book and provide a list of other resources the author has used in writing the book, or which the author thinks might be of interest to the reader. Bibliographies are a wonderful resource for locating additional information about a topic.  Index Indexes are found in non-fiction books and are located at the back of the book. Many people ignore the index, however, it is a very valuable tool for finding out information about the book and what the author has included or omitted. Indexes provide the reader quick alphabetical access to specific topics and people covered in the book. A good index will be cross-referenced, which allows the reader to move from one related topic to another with ease. A cross-referenced index greatly assists the reader in locating the main ideas contained in the book.