Find the drawer marked with the first letter of the title of the book you would like to find. Drawers are marked with letters and arranged alphabetically. For example, if you are looking for the title “Gone with the Wind,” find a drawer labeled with the letter “G” or containing the letter “G,” such as “E-H.” Remember to not count articles (a, an, the) at the beginning of a title. For example, if you are looking for “The Hobbit,” look for it under the letter “H.”
Open the drawer and search for the title of the book. The cards are arranged alphabetically and are held in place by a metal rod. Usually there is enough room in the drawer to flip the cards and read them easily. The information on the card contains the title of the book, its author, publication date and publisher. The call number for the book can usually be found on the left side of the card. This is the number you would use to find the book in the library.
Follow the same procedure for author and subject searches. Search for an author by finding the drawer marked with the first letter of the author’s last name. For example, “King, Stephen,” would be in the drawer marked with a “K.”
Subject searches may be more of an effort if you don’t know the controlled language librarians use. For example, if you are searching for “movies,” you won’t find it under “movies” or “film” but under “Motion Pictures.” If you search the other two words first, you’ll find a card that reads “For movies, see Motion Pictures.” Then you must search for “Motion Pictures” under “M” in an entirely different drawer.