To Delve into Dusty Shelves: The Potential of Libraries

Written by Daniel MacGregor

 Thumbnail Photo by Shunya Koide on Unsplash

Cover Photo by Ryunosuke Kikuno on Unsplash

Books, whether non-fiction or fiction, are works of art, just as a portrait is no less a piece of fine art just because it is a realistic reproduction of a person. This has been made apparent to me in Roy Peter Clark's, Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. By extension, those books which depict actual events are no less authentic art pieces. This is relevant as Saint Mary University’s own library is stacked to the ceiling with non-fiction books,  not to mention the library's general roles in public culture.

However, The Atlantic has published an article recording the decline of book usage in academic libraries. Therefore, with this in mind, I decided to visit the stacks of the nearest library, Saint Mary's own Patrick Power Library. The objective of this expedition was to delve into the quaint aisles of a library, close my eyes, stab my hand into one of the many rows of books, and hold up to the world five exemplars of the potential sitting unread on the shelves.

With this in mind, I strolled over to the library, passing through the gates meant to ensure no one stole any books and encountered a small army of students studying and flipping through computers. On display to the right, walking through the main level, is a selection of books for a promotion subject (at the point, it was a fine collection of books on climate change and environmental issues). The library's new books were to the left, foregrounded by shelves of the latest editions of magazines and newspapers, from the Cape Breton Post to The New York Times.

Continuing with the journey, I scaled the stairs to the third floor, the domain of in-print journals, literature, and science monographs. Of course, my selections could never be completely random, so I divided the five choices between some of the main subgroups, such as literature, mathematics, history, sociology, and philosophy. The first on the board was the P's, housed mainly on the third floor. The P section is dedicated to books on literature. Walking into one of the P aisles, closing my eyes, and reaching out to a top row of books, I found The Plays of Arnold Wesker Volume 1 by Arnold Wesker (PR 6073 E75 A19 1976 v.1 - this is a call number, what most academic libraries use to identify and sort books by. The most important thing to know is that the first letter(s) represent what subject the book belongs to, with each subsequent combination further qualifying the subject. In most cases most on similar topics, such as Ducks, will have vary similar call numbers and be next to each other on the library book shelves). While I can't speak for the overall quality, one notice to those who would run this play tells of the playwright's philosophy on page 82, "My people are not caricatures."

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Moving on to the next juggernaut of the third floor, I charged into the infinite rows of scientific books. I barely understood the one I selected, titled S-Matrix Theory of Strong Interactions by Geoffrey F. Chew (QC 174.3 C45). Consulting Wikipedia, S-matrix theory seems to be an alternative theory for what is called "local quantum field theory." While it looks super high concept, those with the right mindset may find this interesting. Note that a lot of science books are not this full of equations.

Moving to the second floor, these shelves have another wide range of subjects from which to choose. To select the final three samples, I started by picking the wide range of history monographs, as D from F is dedicated to all the world's history. Then, diving into a random aisle and plucking a book from a random shelf, I came away with King's War: Mackenzie King and the Politics of War 1939-1945 by Brian Nolan (FC 582 N65 1988). Flipping through it, one can find a historical account of the Canadian context of World War Two portrayed through an in-depth political look at the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King.

Now saddled with a small collection of books, I jumped into the H sections, which can vary from Economics to Sociology to Urban Studies. In this case, I retrieved Social Action and Social Change, a collection of papers edited by C. Lakshmana, S.P. Srivastava, and R.C. Sarikwal (HN 683.5 S58 1990). Collections like this may be rare in fiction or most non-fiction collections, but they are common in the academic world. Looking at the examples within the anthology, one can find such papers as "The Need of Action Research in India" and "Women's Social Action Groups in India," as you can see just as soon as I did, not clear from the title; the book provides a directed focus on the Indian context.

Now the final selection is where I learned, and maybe you will know too,  that the library is not anglo-exclusive. The last book grabbed was Le Temps et L'instant Selon Aristote by Jacques M. Dubois (B 491 T5 D8), with the B section representing philosophy and Psychology. The best I can glean is that the book is a commentary on Aristotle's philosophy. Still, it may be refreshing to find some french texts in a prominently English city for those francophones out there.

At the end of the library journey, I hope this has shown the literary potential of Saint Mary's library and libraries in general. While the library is a source for books of all sorts, many newer monographs can be accessed as e-books for easier, paper-free viewing. The main source is NovaNet, the online catalog not only for all newspaper articles, journal articles, book chapters, and books at Saint Mary’s both online and offline, but also for most of the academic libraries in Nova Scotia (and Mount Allison). Furthermore, if Cape Breton University has what you are looking for, you can request an interlibrary loan. Also, as boring as it may sound, you can also access many academic articles, such as my favorite, Astropolitics. For all instructions on how to use library resources, the library provides instructions for such tasks as exploring NovaNet. Moreover, last but not least, there is the helpful librarians and library staff, and especially if you are conducting research there is the library’s Research Help Team. Thus, there is a ton of books and articles to choose from.