Libraries:

Libraries have been collecting books and other forms of government and political information for a long time. They are the best general sources for research materials. Books can go out of print very quickly and online sources can be removed from the Internet at any time. Libraries and archives have the mandate to collect, keep and make information available to researchers over time.

Each library will have its own major clientele and collection strengths, but what makes libraries so valuable is the work they do to collect appropriate information, describe it, classify it by subject, organize it for easy retrieval, provide access and advice to researchers.

Cataloguers create a record for every item by recording basic information such as the title, author, publisher, number of pages, etc. They also assign one or more subject headings from a controlled vocabulary system so that users can find all books on the subject, without having to guess at all the possible synonyms or other keywords that might be applicable. A unique call number is then assigned to each item so that users can find it easily on the shelf.

In most public and university libraries books are shelved in call number order, with books on a subject appearing together allowing you to browse the shelves by subject. When government documents collections are separate, they are usually browsable by the authoring body (department, agency, etc.). The records describing the library's holdings are combined to form the library catalogue, a searchable database of all the information in the library.

For more details on searching library catalogues see Part 4: Finding Information: Books.