My Confusing and Chaotic Trip to the Library

Okay so maybe my trip to SCSU's library wasn't chaotic, but it sure as hell was confusing (pardon my french). On Thursday, I had a two hour break inbetween two of my classes. So I decided to pull out my inquiry safari list and start working on my first adventure. I didn’t want to go crazy,  lose track of time, and miss my next class. I picked a fairly quick and simple task. I chose to visit the library and look for a book that would apply to any one of my classes. I walked in to a clean, quiet, well lit, and cool (temperature wise) envirnoment. I saw rows upon rows of shelves filled with books. Each shelf had a piece of paper taped to it with a bunch of confusing numbers and letters. Now I could lie and say that I went to the reference desk to find the location of a book or asked someone for help. But I honestly just wandered around until I stumbled upon an anthropology section. I figured it would be more fun to explore and be lost for a little.

In the anthropology section, I found a big, blue book that captured my attention. It was titled Encylopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Intrigued, I took a picture of the book on the shelf, grabbed it, and took it back with me to a individual table. I checked the table of contents to see what this book was all about. The book contains many different groups of people all over the world. It’s broken up into three sub sections for each type of group mentioned in the book. The first section contains areas where important anthropological work has been done. The second section contains small biographical entries about people who were essential to the development of anthropology. And the third section had a glossary that defines and explains certain terms within the section.

I skimmed through different sections, getting  a basic idea of the book. Then a topic caught my attention. I was interested in learning more about toteism. I knew it was a Native American term and that’s about all a I knew. I learned that each Native American tribe had a spirit animal that basicallly represented their tribe. They believed that they should never kill an animal that was their animal spirit or totem. If they angered their totem by killing that particular animal, they could never hunt again. Later on, people like Freud, Durkheim, and Frazer believed that this was humanity’s first form of religion.

After expanding my education on Native American beliefs, I packed up my stuff, put the book back in it’s spot on the shelf (I didn’t just stuff it somewhere close by), and left the library. Overall, my adventure to the library was quite enjoyable. Yes locating books still baffles me, but it’s a nice place to get my work done or to just pick up a book and learn something new. It’s a nice change up from going to the fire study or media room in the Student Center to get work done. And it’s a lot quieter in there too.