fandomhigh | Libraries and Books: Highlights and Dangers, Tuesday

"Right." Jon nodded. "So today we're looking at a few research tools you can use with books." He waved at the computers in the room. "There's search engines, of course, any number of them. But some libraries might be older, or more niche, and be left with ancient tools like a card catalogue. Also there are tools like concordances and bibliographies that are kept in books themselves and that may not yet have been digitized." He grimaced. "Or it's entirely possible things have been left purposefully mismanaged."

He pulled up a narrow drawer. "This is a card catalogue drawer. I couldn't carry an entire thing. Look through it, get an idea how it works, and let me know if you have questions. This," he plopped a large book on the desk, "is what a concordance looks like. It's an entire text boiled down to each significant word and all the instances in which it occurs. And this," he plunked down another book and opened it to the middle, "is an annotated bibliography. It lists books on a particular topic, along with brief overviews and sometimes reviews of each. You can come up and look at these, or you may look up similar texts on your computers. Then write me a brief annotated bibliography of around ten things in a single topic, even if that topic is what you've read this year, and write up catalogue cards for each book as well."

Yes, there was actual work this week!

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Jo smiled at that and she looked over at Mr. Sims before turning back to Libby, “two people working on it will make it easier to work through, what subject were you looking at doing?”

"Oh, I just figured I'd find something medical to focus on," Libby said, "but anything narrower than that, I haven't really decided. What about you? What were you thinking?"

"Oh medical sounds fascinating," Jo tilted her head, "I haven't really thought about what subject, maybe something to do with history?"

"Maybe we can combine forces, then," Libby's grin broadened eagerly. Yes. For essentially book cataloguing, "and come up with something around medical history."

Jo returned the grin, "I think doing something with medical history sounds like a great idea," she said, "how do we decide what area to focus on?"

"Well...." Libby took a moment, looking up thoughtfully as she considered it. "Maybe....was there a particular area of history you were leaning towards? Maybe we can start there and think of medical events or discoveries that may have happened at that time."

"I was thinking of British history," Jo admitted, even though she realised just how broad that was and she wished she knew a bit more about the history of her own country, "maybe the Victorian era?"

"I don't know as much about medicine in that time period," Libby admitted, more than a little aplogetically. "But I remembering reading about cholera and vaccines not too long ago, I think that was around that time?"

"I think there were some discoveries made in that era," Jo started to say as she tried to think back to the history classes that she had taken, "I do think ..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Jo found herself transformed into a pug and she looked up at Libby with wide eyes, this was definitely different.

"Oh!" Even if Libby had seen it happen before and had even had it happen to herself, it was a bit of a shock, having your friend who you were just talking to turning into an animal. "Jo! Are you okay?"

It hadn't hurt when she turned into a lamb, but it could be different for everyone!

Jo tried to speak and realised she couldn't so she let out a bark and and wagged her tail a little to show that she was okay, it all felt rather different she had never turned into an animal before.

Libraries and Books: Highlights and Dangers, Tuesday

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