How to Find a Book The Library of Congress, the largest library in the United States, contains about eighteen million books. Harvard University has the largest academic library with more than nine million volumes. The largest public library is the Chicago Public Library with nearly six million volumes, followed by the New York Public Library with 5.5 million. Consequently, finding a book in one of these libraries must be like finding a needle in a haystack! Librarians use a special system to make the job of finding books easier. To keep the books in order, librarians give a number to every book in the library, and books are arranged on the shelves according to these numbers. In order to find the number of a book, you must look in the card catalog. The card catalog is a special file of cards with information about the books in the library. Each book has three cards in the card catalog: a title card, an author card, and a subject card. These cards are arranged in the card catalog in alphabetical order. If you know the title of the book you are looking for, look for the title card. If you only know the author, look for the author card. If you are looking for a book about a particular subject, look for the subject card. When you find the card of the book you want, copy the number of the book. Then you can find the book easily. Comprehension of the Text. 1. What is the topic of this reading? A) The largest library in the U.S. B) A special system for numbering books. C) Finding books in a library. D) Finding a needle in a haystack. 2. The largest library in the United States is the ____. A) Library of Congress B) Chicago Public Library C) Harvard University Library D) New York Public Library 3. The largest academic library in the U.S. is the ____. A) New York Public Library B) Chicago Public Library C) Library of Congress D) Harvard University Library 4. How do librarians keep library books in order? A) They arrange the books in alphabetical order. B) They put the books into a card catalog. C) They give a number to each book. D) They put the books on the shelves. 5. The card catalog is a ____. A) place to keep books B) special file of cards C) kind of library D) special number system