"After you have pumped your brains for thoughts and verse, there is a better poetry hinted in whistling a tune on your walk." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). Journal, 1859, undated.

This lovely quote was found in Random House Webster's Quotationary edited by Leonard Roy Frank and published in 1999. I chose this quote because today was a day of inspiration! Unfortunately our library is probably a bit different than the type of stroll Mr. Emerson would have been referring too--although I would love a greenhouse library! But the idea Mr. Emerson seems to be getting at still resounds with my volunteer time today: When you research and research and research and do not find what you're looking for--when you head to reference section of 016's you'll find just what you need! Maybe that's a little too far of a stretch for Mr. Emerson...but for our purposes today...hahaha

The Random House Webster's Quotationary is a book that is found in Crowell Library's Reference section. I learned today a bit more about the reference section--a place where I typically only go for commentaries and books like100 must reads of the 20th century. But today I learned about the "016's" (oh one six--reference to the dewey decimal of that section.) According to volume two of Dewey Decimal Classification edition 21 the 016's are, "Bibliographies and catalogs of works on specific subjects or in specific disciplines." (45)

In laymen's terms! THESE ARE INDEXES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES FROM SCHOLARS WHO HAVE ALREADY DONE THE DIRTY WORK FOR US! When a daunting research paper is assigned I will normally go to a friend and ask for the best commentaries available, the best scholars on the subject, and what I should read in full and where to inquire for further research. BUT! what I learned today is that there are indexes in the reference section of books (the 016's) that are purely bibliographies! Lists of the best of this and the liberal of that. There are lists with annotations, and lists with bold faced type. There are lists and lists and more lists! And all these lists are just to help us research!

And get this! This section of the library has recently been re-arranged to help us, the patrons, easily access what we're trying to find! The sections are: Religion, Social Sciences, Language, Science, Technology, Arts & Rec, Literature, History, and Biography. After that there are encyclopedia's dedicated to subjects like philosophy, great thinkers, psychology, and the list goes on!

The 016's are my new friend. This portion of the reference section is a new pal that will definitely be of great use come this fall for my last semester line-up. And I hope that you too will use this section--BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE TO THE DIRTY WORK! Someone else has already done it all--compiled lists and lists of useful bibliographies for whatever subject you need to research and it's all printed and published! So join me in the 016's as I currently brush up on my chess game by using the list of annotated bibliographies in Alex Dunne's Great Chess Books of the Twentieth Century in English. I mean, come on--who doesn't want to be the next Bobby Fischer?