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Library Guides

Library Skills

Books

You will be provided with a reading list by your lecturer, which will contain recommended academic books to use, as well as journal articles, here are some facts about academic books to help you understand them:

  • Academic books focus on a specialised area.
  • They are useful for providing background information, an introduction to a topic or an overview of a specific subject.
  • Academic books can be written by one or more authors who are experts in their field. Sometimes the chapters are each written by different authors which are then edited and published as a collection.
  • Some academic books are updated every few years and a newer edition is published.

Finding Books on the shelves is easy once you understand how the books are organised.  The collection at the Charles Seale-Hayne Library is organised using the Dewey Decimal Classification System.

The School Experience Collection (SEC) follows a simplified version of the Dewey Decimal System.