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Research Toolkit: Find a Book

Tools, techniques, and resources to help you find the information you need.

 Related Guides: Find and Borrow a Book From Another Library

 

Watch - Finding Books

 



If you want to find books, the library's online catalog is a great place to look.
To search the catalog, just begin on the library's home page at wccnet.edu/library and click on the PRIMO search field.
Let’s search for more information about pollinators by typing that key term and clicking search.
Your results will include items from the library's catalog, including our online collection of journal articles and databases. After receiving the first round of results, I would suggest browsing the first few titles for relevance.
If you have too many results, you may try clicking the advanced search" link from here so you can add more keywords.
From the advanced search screen, you can specify where you want to search- such as limiting your results to the library catalog or just articles.
You can also add other search terms, using boolean operators AND, which is the default setting to narrow your search to results that will include both key terms.
You can broaden your results by using OR or you can specify that your results have certain terms but NOT others.
You can also specify where these key terms show up in the results; for example you can limit to only searching for results with your key terms being in the title, author’s name, or subject terms.
I find it's easiest to keep your search broad unless you know the exact title or author you're looking for.
I'll add the keywords climate change" to our search.
Now we have fewer results- going from over 83,000 to just over 22,000.
If you are looking for a specific type of resource, such as a book, you can limit your search on the left side of the page.
Just click on resource type and select books.
You may also click on held by library to narrow your results to items in our physical collection.
From the results list, you can click on any title to find more information.
This book is unique in that it is available both online and in our library for checkout. For accessing e-books, just click the links under the view online section.
For physical books, this page will also give you information such as the book's call number, availability, and location.
The call number is a unique alphanumeric combination that will help you find the book on the shelf.
It's the equivalent of the book's address in the library. The location will tell you what section of the library the book is located in.
The primary book locations in the library are children's, reference, oversized, and general, with most books belonging to the general collection.
You can also see here that the book is available and loanable, meaning that you can check it out from the library.
If you scroll down further, you can see more information about the book under the Details section, including subject headings and a description, as well as related titles and sometimes a table of contents.
If you need help searching the catalog, or finding a book in the library, please don’t hesitate in asking a librarian for assistance.
We are always happy to help and can be reached in person or online via the Ask a Librarian chat service.

 


Practice - Interactive Tutorial

 

Practice searching for books using the Bailey Library catalog tutorial with PRIMO Smart Search


Finding Books in the Catalog

You can search for books by keyword, title, author, or subject using the Bailey Library catalog.

Enter a title, author or keyword into the search box. Optional: Select word or phrase, subject, author, or title from the drop down menu to specify what you're looking for. Click the search button to run the search. If any books come up in the search, they will appear as a list of results.

There are two types of books in the catalog: print books and eBooks. Print books will have a call number underneath the title and eBooks are labeled E-BOOK underneath the title. Keep this in mind if you have a preference for one or the other.

 

book vs ebook

 

Accessing Books

For physical items (print books/DVDs)

Click on the title of the book to view the following details:

  • Availability - tells you whether the book is available, checked-out or lost.
  • Call Number - tells you the shelf location of the book.
  • Location - tells you what collection the book can be found in. There are 4 main collections in Bailey Library:
    • General
    • Reference
    • Oversize
    • Children's
 

 

If the book is available, make note of the location and call number. All books are organized according to call number from A to Z). If you need assistance finding books on the shelf, ask a library staff member. We're happy to help!

For electronic items (eBooks or online videos)

Click the title of the book to view more details about it. 

Click the "View Resource Online" link to access a digital version of the book.