Overview
Reference books are non-circulating, meaning that they are not available for check out from the library, though readers are welcome to take notes or make copies of the pages they need. Comprehensive encyclopedia sets and subject guides are often included in the reference collection.
What It Looks Like
Since reference titles don't check out, they don't contain blue or white check-out cards inside their front covers; instead, they have "REFERENCE" written in bold letters. Reference books do still have white spine labels (clearly marked with an "R" for "Reference", followed by a "J" or "Y" age designation (for Juvenile or Youth material), a Dewey Decimal number, and the first three letters of the author's last name (or as happens more often with Reference titles, the first three letters of the series, such as "COM" for "Compton's"). So, a spine label for the encyclopedia pictured below would be "R J031 COM".
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| Left: The cover of a reference title. Right: The inside cover of a reference book. |
How to Find It
Here's an image of the catalog card for the encyclopedia mentioned above:
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| Title card for the full Compton's set. |
Reference books are so easy to find, you don't even really need to look up their locators in the card catalog! At most of the libraries in the Ozark Regional system, reference titles are shelved on top of the regular Nonfiction bookshelves. Books are grouped together in complete sets (see the picture below of the full Compton's set).
If you've missed any part of this eight-part series on demystifying the youth collection, you can catch up on Board Books, Picture Books, Easy Readers, Juvenile Fiction, the Paperback Collection, Teen Fiction, or Children's/Teen Nonfiction when you have time.
Keep reading!
Shaen
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