Lessons learnt...

The National Library which opened in 2005 was the classroom for COM242 today. Since the classroom was different, so were the teachers. The teachers for the day was Miss Wun Han, Ivy and Sharon. Even though many people have been to the National Library, not everyone knew everything about the library or used all the facilities available to them. The main places that we were all shown to today was Level 7 (Social Sciences and Humanities, Science and Technology Collections) and Level 11 (Singapore and Southeast Asian Collections). There is also one very special point about level 11. We were told that for all local books, 2 copies of the book must be given to the library under the National Library Act. This Act has resulted in the National Library having a very comprehansive collection of local books. Although we were supposed to go to Level 16 (The Pod), we could not go because it was closed for maintenance.

However, before we were given the tour of level 7 and 11, we were first given a short lesson on the library and the electronic databases available both at home and in the library. We were taught how to use the library's OPAC system, both the basic and advance searches, and search tips on how to find what we are looking for. We were also given a list of the different call numbers of the different topics of the mass media collections.

We were then taught how to use 3 electronic databases - EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier, Proquest and Newsbank. In all 3 edatabases, we were taught how to use the basic and advanced searches. In addition, we were also taught some search tips such as the wildcard search (?) and the truncation search (*), both of which produce different results. At the end of the presentation, we were also informed about the library's blog, called Highbrowse Online. On the blog, people write reviews of particular books, and every month, a lucky reviewer will will a $10 voucher for either Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf or Breadtalk.

During the tour, we were all given some time to look around and browse the library's collection of books, periodicals and multimedia on level 7 and 11.

Personally, I think that all of us learnt how to use the electronic databasesmore efficiently and to our advantage. I also think that through the entire session at the library, many of us learnt a lot more about the library and what the library has. Kudos to Miss Wun Han, Ivy and Sharon for teaching us so much. Kudos also to Mr Kevin Lim and Miss Elaine Ng for arranging this trip.