University of Dar Es Salaam library Guide
The Library is an Institute that every student is likely to visit frequently and regularly. It is a place for study, providing book and non book materials, which supplement lectures and the quietness which serious students need. It is a service common to all, and is generous in its borrowing facilities and in its opening hours. It is essential that users of the library should contribute to its satisfactory operation by observing the regulations, which govern its use with particular regard to borrowing books in the legitimate way. The rules are meant to ensure equal access to all library resources and facilities. Library staff will check all items being taken out of the library. It is for the benefit of all readers that this checking is done in order to avoid the inconvenience, which may arise when books intended for use by all are unlawfully removed. Readers are therefore asked to co-operate with the library staff and security guards at both the entrance and exit controls.
The library is largely an open access. This means that readers have free access to the shelves and may browse and borrow at will. Certain categories of materials may not be borrowed, mainly because of their value, or rarity, or the great use made of them. These are mainly placed either in the special or shelf reserve of respective collections. Meanwhile, the East Africana collection is accessible only to research students and staff, others may use it only with permission from the Library Director or authorized senior library staff.
Registration and Borrowing
To join the library, fill in a registration card at the issue desk. First year students must complete their Orientation Week Library assignment before getting their unique identification numbers. Continuing students must re-register each new academic year. Students who have not cleared all their previous loans of books or fines will not be allowed to re-register and borrow any library materials. To borrow, present the item you want at the circulation desk together with your bar coded identity card.
The Catalogues
There are two main catalogues:
1. The manual card catalogue
2. The online public access catalogue (OPAC)
The manual card catalogue :
The manual card catalogue is located at the main entrance hall on the first floor. It consists of two separate catalogues one for author and the other for subject. Users are cautioned that all materials acquired after November 1998 are not reflected in the manual card catalogues. They are therefore advised to search the computerized catalogue (OPAC) for a more comprehensive and current search. Retrospective conversion of the manual library catalogue has been completed.
The manual catalogue is divided into two separate catalogues;
a. The author catalogue
b. The subject catalogue and subsidiary catalogues
1. Author Catalogue
This is an alphabetical index on 5″ x 3″ cards, the cards showing the kind of materials the Library has by individuals, societies, official bodies etc. Most of the materials are monographs and are entered under the surname of the author of each monograph. If there is no author, the entry is under title. Works by institutions and societies are entered under their names, except official organizations, which are usually entered first under the country from which they emanate, followed by the name of the organization. Periodicals are entered under their titles or under the names of the organisations which issue them, as in the case of proceedings, transactions and reports.
2. Subject Catalogue
This is an alphabetical index on 5″ x 3″ cards, being arranged by subject headings which show the subject contents of the books. The catalogue contains many cross-references from synonymous subject headings, which are not used, to the headings, which are used. If a book deals with three separate subjects a subject card will be filed in the catalogue for each of them. The book, however, will be shelved with the subject with which it mainly deals. The subject catalogue, therefore, is a more exhaustive guide to the subject with which it mainly deals and subject content of the library than is the classified shelf arrangement of books.
3. Special Catalogue
The Library maintains the following extra catalogues.
(a) The Law collection catalogue which holds, author and subject catalogues. This is a duplicate of entries for law books in the main catalogues. It is kept in the Law Collection.
(b) The East Africana Collection has both author and subject catalogues for each work shelved in the collection
(c) Maps collection author catalogue has a main author card for each work shelved in the collection. It is kept with the map collection.
(d) Manuscript collection author catalogue, has a main author or title entry for each item catalogued by the library, though not necessarily kept in the manuscript cabinets. The catalogue is kept in the East Africana collection.
(e) The catalogue of Cory manuscripts is also kept in the East Africana Collection.
(f) The library files card bibliographies of current writings on Africa. These are compiled by other libraries and organizations such as Afro-Asian Studies Group Library, Cambridge University and Centre International de Documentatio Economique et Social Africaine (C.I.D.E.S.A) Bibliographic index cards for publication relating to African economic and Social matters.
(g) The periodicals index, lists alphabetically all periodical titles held by the library. Both the author and subject cards in the main catalogues and their duplicates in the special collections (Law, East Africana) have other information such as date, place of publication and where the materials are located in the library (see example below).
Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC):
This is a new computerized library catalogue that has been developed using the ADLIB integrated library software package. The library online catalogue is a union catalogue that integrates catalogue records of faculty, institute and departmental libraries on the campus. The process of integrating these records is on going and currently the resources of the Faculty of Law (FOL) Library, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Demographic Training Unit (DTU), Faculty of Commerce and Management, Faculty of Education, Institute of Mass Media and Journalism, Faculty of Aquatic Sciences and Technology and Institute of Kiswahili Research (IKR) have been fully integrated. Departmental Libraries in the Prospective College of Engineering, faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Science, have been partially integrated into the Union Catalogue. The computerized catalogue is accessible through the Internet at the following Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or world wide web address; www.libis.udsm.ac.tz/adlib/beginner/index_gb.html .This catalogue can be accessed and searched at any computer that has been connected to the Internet using the ADLIB Internet server search system. Within the library there are a total of 14 computer terminals at different service points to facilitate searching the online catalogue.
The University of Dar es Salaam Library OPAC is user friendly. Users can conduct a simple search or an expert search system using boolean operators. Users have the option of searching the full catalogue or parts of the catalogue such as books, articles, audio visual materials and serials. Users can search by title, author, organization, text search, subject or even by year of publication. Search result gives information on the title of the book, author, publication statement, and the section of the library or where the item is located. Other information include the class mark, availability status and whether the item can be borrowed or not.
CLASSIFICATION
The Library uses the classification schedule devised and used by the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C. It divided the field of knowledge as follows:
Classes A-Z
A General Works
B Philosophy, psychology, religion
C History, auxiliary sciences: chronology, numismatic, heraldry, biography
D History: general and old world; Africa
E-F History: America
G Geography, anthropology, folklore
H Social science: statistics, economics, sociology
J Political science, constitutional history, international law
K Law
L Education
M Music
N Fine Arts
P Language and Literature
Q Science
R Medicine
S Agriculture
T Technology
U Military Science
V Naval Science
Z Bibliography, Librarianship
Subjects are separated from each other and are subdivided into even smaller and more specialized aspects by a process of dividing the classification numbers: e.g.
A-Z Main class
AE-AZ Narrower classes of subjects
ABI-999 (numerical) Detailed division of subject
AB100.1.A2 (decimal) Author arrangement (e.g.Abraham) under a class number.
The classification number is typed in the left margin of the catalogue and is written on the spine of the book.
Location symbols are used and prefixed to the classification numbers for works which are kept separate from the main book stock as follows:
Main Library
BIOD Biodiversity database
EAF East Africana
EAF.CORY Cory manuscirpts
EDB Environment database
Fol Folio
FOL Faculty of Law
FOS Fosbrooke
IDS Institute of Development Studies
LAW Law collection
EAF.LIB Liberation Movements, African
MAP Maps
MEE Microfiches
MIC Microcards
MIF Microfilms
MSS Manuscripts
PAM Pamphlets
PER Periodicals
QTO Quarto
REF References collection
REP Reprint
THS Thesis
UNO United Nations Collection
Other Libraries
AGR Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro (SUA)
AGR/FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) Publications in SUA
AGR/SPE (Special Collection) in SUA
MED Medical Library Muhimbili
MED/WHO (World Health Organization) Publication
MUS National Museum
There can be a combination of location symbols, e.g. EAF.REP indicating a reprint in the East Africana collection, or LAW.QTO indicating a quarto size book in the Law collection, EAF.THS refers to thesis in East Africana.
THE FILING OF CATALOGUE CARDS
It is not easy to reduce thousands of catalogue entries to a simple alphabetical sequence, and unless one acquaints oneself with the basic filing rules one is bound to experience difficulty in using the catalogues and to overlook entries. Readers are advised to consult the outline of filing rules followed by the library, which is available near the catalogues.
It will help if one knows the main rules, which are briefly given below,
(a) The arrangement is word by word, alphabetized letter by letter to the end of each words:
New Amsterdam
New York
Newark
(b) In the author catalogue there could be three sequence under the same name, and in this order:
Personal surname Moshi, Elibariki John
Place as authors Moshi, Town Council
Titles, series, phrases Moshi magazine
(c) In the subject catalogue there could be four sequences under the same name, and in this order:
Personal or other names READING, GEOFFREY
Places as authors READING, ENGLISH
Subjects, things READING
Phrases READING GOAL
A subject might be further divided and arranged according to the following rule:
Subject alone …………………………………………….….ART
Subject with form of subject division……………………….…ART-BIBL.
Time division…………………………………………………ART-20th CENTURY.
Geographic division…………………………………………. ART-GREECE
Parenthesis…………………………………………………..ART (BIOLOGY)
Inverted headings …………………………………………..ART, ANCIENT
The catalogues are liberally provided with guide cards, reference cards cross-reference cards, but in the final resort you should consult the library staff, who will be glad to assist you in your search.
(1) Books
These cover all subjects. Note that there are three sequences, determined according to the heights of the books:
a. Octavos ( the bulk of the stock up to 27 cm (11″) high
b. Quartos, over 27 cm (11″) and up to 33 cm. (13″) with the location symbol QTO
c. Folio over 33cm. (13″) with the location symbol FOL
(2) Reference Collection
This collection consists of major reference books such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, yearbooks and handbooks as well as directories and University calendars. Reference books have the location symbol REF. Materials in the Reference Collection may be read only in the reading area near this collection.
(3) Newspaper Facility
The Library buys a number of current Tanzanian daily and weekly newspapers for use by readers in the newly established Newspaper area. Only current issues are available here: back issues are available in the East Africana Section.
(4) Microfilms and other microforms
Microfilms, micro-cards and other forms of micro reproduction are kept in the Reference section and may be borrowed on request, for use on the reading machines in this Department. Content lists on the films, which contain many different works or series, are kept at the Reference Collection.
(5) CD-ROMs
CD-ROM (Computer Disc Read Only Memory) is a media for storage and retrieval of information. As the name implies, they are compact discs capable of storing large sets of data, which can be accessed and read using a computer terminal with a CD-ROM disc drive.
The library holds a number of international bibliographic databases on CD-ROMS. The discs and the computers are located in the Reference section. They may be used on request and with the consultation of the Reference section staff. All faculty, postgraduates and undergraduates are entitled to use the CD-ROM service. There is a user fee for external users of this service. For a list of CD ROMs in the library consult the Guide to CD-ROM databases in the Library.
(6) The East Africana Collection
The collection of East Africana items is purely for reference. It is a research collection containing items of East Africa generally, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with emphasis on Tanzania.
The items consist of books, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, theses and reprints. Many of these include publications of the East African Universities and official documents. Naturally the greater part of the collection consists of items on Tanzania including those received on legal deposit. However, there is a fair coverage of the other East African countries particularly in statistical and periodical materials published prior to the mid 1980’s. The Cory, Kiswahili and Arabic manuscripts are the most significant ones.
Every reader entering the collection should identify him/herself and register in the counter book at the checkpoint. Only six loose sheets of paper may be taken into the room by those entitled to use the Collection. Only academic staff, postgraduates, final year undergraduates and researches with research clearance are entitled to use it. Other readers may be allowed in at the Director’s discretion after satisfying him/her on the need to use the collection through letters of introduction or request from their Heads of Department or Institutions.
(7) Government Publications
Before official publications are catalogued they are shelved together and arranged under names of countries. Because catalogued works are shelved with other classified sequences of books, pamphlets, and periodicals, and because some are on film it is necessary to consult the library catalogues and the register for official publications in order to know with certainty what is in stock. The uncatalogued official publications are located in the East Africana Section.
(8) United Nations Documents
United Nations (U.N.) documents consist of those issued by the main U.N. body such as the General Assembly, Security Council, Regional Commissions, as well as those issued by various U.N. agencies, including UNESCO, UNCTAD, WHO, UNEP, FAO, UNIDO, ILO, etc.
Some U.N. publications are located in the East Africana Collection while others have been integrated into other various collections such as Law and Reference where they may be accessed in the normal way. Publications still in East Africana are kept together in the main, and are filed by their own publication numbers and not according to the library classification system used for other materials. The key to the library’s holdings is the register of United Nations Documents kept in the workroom of the East Africana Section. Access to the documents is by the various United Nations Documents Indexes to which reference should be made
(9) Maps
Most maps received are East African maps from various Government Survey Departments and are located in the East Africana Collection. Atlases and gazetteers are located in the Reference Section.
(10). Theses
The University Library is a depository of all unpublished theses from the University and from other universities written by Tanzanians. The theses collection also contains theses from Makerere and Nairobi Universities acquired through theses exchange program by the three former sister Colleges of The University of East Africa. However, this arrangement has not been fulfilled fully, and there are some gaps. All theses are located in the East Africana Collection and are shelved separately, bearing the prefix THS.EAF. Undergraduate dissertations by students are also located in the East Africana Collection.
(11) Manuscripts
The East Africana Collection holds Cory, Kiswahili and Arabic Manuscripts
(12) Liberation Movement Materials
The East Africana Collection holds limited materials on Liberation Movements in Africa
(13) Law
The Law Collection is self-contained, having within the same area books, periodicals and government publications pertaining to law and legal matters. It has also separate (and full) author and subject catalogues of its holdings.
(14). Science and Engineering
All library materials related to Science and technology are shelved separately at Science & Engineering Department which is located at the 1st floor of library building.
(13) Arts and Social Sciences
Arts & Social Science materials are available on the 2nd floor of Library building under Department of Arts & Social Sciences.
(14) Pamphlets
Pamphlets are shelved separately at the end of the book sequences. An exception on this arrangement is made in the case of pamphlets in the Bibliography section of class Z, which are interfiled with the books.
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