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Watched a librarian in Phoenix reshelve my whole pile in 90 seconds and realized I've been using the catalog wrong for years
I asked for help finding sources on the Dust Bowl and handed her a list of call numbers I'd scribbled down, feeling pretty proud of myself. She glanced at it, typed two words into the computer, and pulled up a whole shelf I'd never seen, including three oral history collections I would have missed completely. Turns out I'd been searching by title for years instead of using subject headings, which is why I always came up with like four results and gave up. She showed me how to click the little subject link under any catalog entry and follow it sideways into everything related. So what's the one search trick you wish someone had shown you way earlier?
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tessa82928d ago
Subject headings are honestly overrated and people act like they are some magic key when they are just someone else's guess at what a book is about. Half the time the headings are outdated or weird, like everything gets tagged with five terms that have nothing to do with what you actually need. A librarian can type two words and find cool stuff because she knows the collection and the database quirks, not because subject links are some secret hack. Search by keyword, then sort by date, and you will find the same oral histories without playing follow the link for an hour. The real trick is asking a human who works there, which is what actually happened in your story.
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