Hi, it’s Cowabelle.
Roberta and I are doing our first school project of the year together and to be honest – it’s been a little tough. I know Roberta is my best friend, but, um – how can I say this nicely? School work is not exactly her strong suit, if you know what I mean. And working together on this project I feel like I’m doing most of the work. Like when it comes to research, Roberta just goes online and looks everything up on the same website. I know the internet can be great when you’re researching a subject, but it’s also kind of limiting sometimes. There are a lot of sites to sift through and a lot of information is repeated because everybody’s getting their info from the same source. That’s why – as well as doing SOME online research – I like to use the library.
I go to the library all the time – I mean ALL THE TIME – anyway to take out fiction books just for fun. But it’s also a great place to do research, because you can pull out a whole stack of books and have access to lots of photos and illustrations as well as unique viewpoints and opinions from a bunch of different authors. Each book will have their own take on a subject and give a lot of detail that you don’t always get on websites.
So anyway – I convince Roberta that we need to do some research in the library. Our project is on Pioneers and the first thing Roberta does is start looking on the shelves for the ‘P’s. Like – has she NEVER set foot in a library? She didn’t know that non-fiction books aren’t listed alphabetically. They are numbered by subject using the Dewey Decimal System (named after Melvil Dewey, who invented it in 1876). We had to look in the card catalogue under P for Pioneer and then we would find listings for a whole load of books about pioneers and we could locate them on the shelves using their numbers. Roberta said that it was silly still using the card catalogue because everything’s on computers now. It’s true – most libraries DO have computers that let you look up the same info as the card catalogue, but I still like to use the card catalogue in case the library hasn’t put everything on the computer yet.
Then she said I was like an old lady that wants everything to be like it was in the ‘old days’ and that we didn’t have to do all this work when there were computers and the internet to do most of the work for us now. Is she for real? I was pretty mad at her, until my mom handed back some quizzes from last week. Roberta did really badly on the quiz and she was so upset I couldn’t be mad any more. She said she is having a really hard time keeping up with our school work this year. Then she said that’s why we should just use computers to let us take a load of short cuts to get our project done. Um – hello? That is exactly why we need to do lots of proper, serious research! So we really learn the facts and remember them!!!
I’m really not liking this leg of this story. While I beyond agree that the value of libraries is extremely important, any good library uses much more technology than this. Ebooks, qualified research sources on the website, and card catalogues more up to date than the paper ones. Sorry, writers, but you guys need to do research like Cowabelle, not Roberta!
I LUV THE LIBRARY!!! I SPEND MOST OF MY LUNCH TIMES THERE. DONT ASK ME WHY I’M POSTIN STUFF IN CAPITALS. ITS COZ I LUV LIBRARYS SOOOO BAD
Yeah poor Roberta, friends getting on her case over her fashion sense in the WW newspaper (W tales) and now for being not the best at school. But she does need to learn the value of a library, in fact I hope everyone does because I am concerned for libraries going away because so much is digital.
Poor Roberta.
I love books. Someone gave me a Kindle as a gift, but I still prefer holding the actual book in my hands and reading it the “old fashioned” way. :)
I love reading the “old fashioned” way too! LOL!
I do, too! I like the smell of books……. :oops:
Faith, Hope, Animals,
RedPanda
Yeah, I bought one with my own money, and it was definitively a good deal on my part. It’s light, and you can stock up on books, so if you finish one you don’t have to be bored. But I also like reading my REAL books, and nobody else in my class has one, so it’s kinda awkward. Also, my reading teacher is really old, so I’m not sure she’s exactly jumping on the idea, if you know what I mean. Also, I have the same problem as this bunny lady, also, sometimes I don’t even WANT to work with this girl in my class that’s like this bunny lady’s friend. But she IS one of my best friends, so I can’t say no, but I want to work with another friend! What do I do?
The Library is awesome I always manage to come back with a load of books But i also do a lot of research on the internet. My favorite animal is penguins and i have a whole huge thing about penguins which i copied and pasted of the internet don’t worry i didn’t say i wrote it that would be wrong i haven’t even read the paper i just researced it. There should be a liabrary in Webkinz world
I’m two types of bugs a book worm and a:
♥♦Jitterbug♦♥
I go to the library as often as I can-a lot! In fact I’m running out of books to read. )= Looking in the Adult Section, non fiction is great, most of the time. How ever if you can’t go to the library then you can search on the internet. =)
~Winter.
My dad and I go to the library every Saturday to get books. I <3 the Eragon trilogy, it's soooo good.
Librarys are so cool! ;-)