Libraries and their Systems

A quick way to discern the natural writer is to watch his reaction to the smell of the stacks in his local or university library. A natural writer will snuggle up with the books. She or he will sit comfortably in the aisles of the stacks and make themselves at home while reading through whatever they come across. He or she may even bring a pillow or a bottle of water for comfort.

During my years at the University of Florida, I would hide in the stacks with an excitement in my soul of what I may stumble across in my research while sitting up there away from everyone in my world. At that time, the University of Florida had 12 libraries on campus that held over 22 million books. How exciting!

Only a natural writer can get excited by hiding out in stacks of stinky books. But, if you are indeed a natural nonfiction writer, then you will make friends with your library and its librarians and you will get comfortable with their ways and their systems.

Remember, librarians are your friends. They are the experts on finding content in their library. If you come across a librarian that finds you or your requests for help burdensome, then change libraries.

It is important for the novice writer to know which libraries you can access. If you live in the United States and pay taxes, then you can technically and legally access any public library including libraries on state university campuses. Most of the general public does not know that you can access all 22 million books at the University of Florida if you live in and pay taxes in Florida. This is true in every state and in every state supported university. It is also true of local community colleges since they also receive state tax dollars and you are a tax paying member of the community. It is not true of private colleges and universities. They can deny you access and most often do.

If you go into your local state university library and ask to borrow books, they will likely balk at you when you disclose that you are not a card carrying member of the student body. Try not to make a scene, but don't settle for a no either. If you are talking to a student worker at the desk, then you may need to politely ask for the library director to make your request for a non-student library card. Every state university library and local community college issues them, even if the student clerk does not know it. Try not to make the student feel stupid when making your request. After all, unless you have a university degree there is a good likelihood that this course is your first encounter with this information.

The reason I point you to your local state university library system is because it is most likely your best source for reference and research information. The larger the volume of the state university library contents, the better the library. In large states, such as Texas, or in densely populated states, such as Florida, the state university system is quite large and all of the locations are networked together through an Internet network between the universities. In Texas and in Florida, the system is known as LUIS (Library User Information Service). Other states may use different systems and they may or may not be as well connected.

For researching your subject, these are awesome resources because you can query or make a borrowing request from another university if the one you are standing in does not have a copy of the book or material. Remember, as a borrowing member of the tax paying public rather than a member of the student body, you may have limits set on your privileges that include shorter borrowing times than if you were a student; prepare to adjust accordingly.

When you first begin writing nonfiction, you will need to take a few weeks in your library of choice to acquaint yourself with their many systems and processes. If you have not done so in a while, brush up on your library's card system, their online card system, their microfiche machines, in-house copiers, Wi-Fi hot spots for your lap top, their DVD collection, and e-books on CD. Be sure to find their reading rooms, even if they look like little closets with small desks and glass doors.

Online Research

The more complex your subject, the more likely you are to conduct the research offline. Normally, online research is for basics or surface information. It is not for detailed or complex subject matter. The Internet is great for fact checking, but you should not confuse or deceive yourself into thinking that you will find something unique by querying Google on your subject matter. The reason for this fact is simply that you and I do not have the patience to page through to the 2 millionth reference listed to find something no one has read in fifty years.

We are still creatures of touch and we function best in our research efforts when we can reach up and touch a set of books or use our eyes to glance through rows of stacks rather than wasting time waiting on the clunky Internet connection to page through. After all, your eyes can see 200 book titles in a matter of a couple of minutes or you can spend hours flipping through the sites. As you become a polished writer, your research efforts will become streamlined and you will know where and how to cut your time.

The exception to this general position is when you are submitting nonfiction to an online company for online access or publication. In such cases, you will want to do some online research so that you know what your competition references and so you can determine if you can access better information somewhere else. If you are writing for an online company, however, do not be afraid to quote other online sources as references for your material. Online companies expect and like references that their clients can quickly access at the moment they are reading your material.