Read Me the One About the Revolutionary Mommy

I reached the rock bottom point of boredom yesterday. TV, movies and even computer games weren't interesting. When I got here a few weeks ago I asked Brad to get a library card because I had grand plans to read read read this summer. I haven't read anything. So this morning I decided to go to the library and borrow some books. I checked out The Trial by Franz Kafka, Bleak House by Charles Dickens and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I also attempted to check out Dante's Inferno but they only had some sort of Cliff's Notes version. And finally, I had been wanting to read a biography on Leon Trotsky so I checked the online catalog and this library had two. Unfortunately the first book was labeled "missing". But the second one looked promising so I set out on my search, call number in hand, but was unable to find the book. This was a little embarrassing since I used to work in a library that was about ten times the size of this library. I decided to look for help.

Me: (giving confused look to a woman dressed very casually with no name tag)

Librarian: Can I help you find something?

Me: I'm so used to the Library of Congress call numbers, I can't find this book.

Librarian: What's the number?

Me: (pointing at a call number on a piece of paper which reads J 921 Garza Hedd) It's a biography but I don't understand what this 'J' means.

(also, I though biographies were placed in the order of the subject not in the name of the author, which in this case was Hedda Garza)

Librarian: That 'J' means Juvenile. It's in the Children's Section. Let's have a look. (she turns and heads toward the back of the library)

Me: You have a children's book on Leon Trotsky?

Librarian: That's what the 'J' means.

Me: Interesting...

Librarian: We'll see...

As it turns out, the book is written to about a middle school level and didn't look all that bad. I almost checked it out but I wanted something with a little more substance. The Librarian also stated that biographies are cataloged by the subject's name not the author's name. So the call number would be J 921 Trotsky Leon or something like that.

Me: But, on your online catalog it says: Call Number: J 921 Garza Hedd?

Librarian: Yes, but biographies are actually cataloged under the subject's name. Confusing isn't it?

Me: Yeah.

Oh well, I have two weeks to read three books and that should be fine. The library is part of a larger network so my next trip to the library will be: Adventures in Interlibrary Loans.