Searching for a print book, E-book, print journal, or video in the library is can be done through the catalog. The catalog can look overwhelming, but if you follow the steps in this guide you should be able to confidently find materials in the library.
What can you find in the catalog:
What you won't find in the catalog:
To access the library catalog use the Search the Discovery Catalog feature at the top of the library homepage.
To search for a book by subject in the catalog, you need to develop a list of KEYWORDS (see Developing Keywords) that you will use in the search. Do not use full sentences, the extra words in a sentence will muddy your results.
Sample correct search: Cloning and Ethics and Human*
Sample incorrect search: Is it ethical to clone humans?
After you search your keywords you can then narrow your results down to books and eBooks using the format filter. You can also limit your search results to books that are on your local campus if you want a book you can pick up today. You can borrow books from any campus library but it may take a few days for it to get to your location.
Important note: If you want to see ebook results you can only limit your search to "Libraries Worldwide" or "Fairleigh Dickinson Libraries". If you limit your results to one campus library, ebooks will no longer show up in your results.
Once you have narrowed your search you can then look at the results. You will notice eBooks list a "View eBook" button below the book's title while print books state the book is held by FDU libraries. To find out more information about the book or to find the book's call number and location, click on the book's title.
When trying to locate a book in the collection, you will need to write down the entire call number. A partial call number will get you in the general area where the book is shelved, but there may be hundreds of other books that start with the same number.
To search for a book by author click on the Advanced Search link at the right of the search box.
From here select Author from the drop down menu. Enter your author's name as last name, first name. For instance if you were looking for books written by Thomas Jefferson you will get better results searching Jefferson, Thomas. If you are only interested in books or eBooks you will still need to select it under the format options in the left hand menu.
In the search results, you should see your author listed under the title of each entry. To view more information about the book click on the title.
Advanced searching allows you to perform more specific searches than the Basic Search by using limiters. Limiters can reduce your number of results by various criteria, including date of publication, location, and type of resource. To perform an Advanced Search, click the Advanced Search link to the right of the main search box. Here you will be able to choose different fields to search such as title, keyword, author, publisher etc.
Enter your search terms in the boxes provided using the AND, OR, or NOT operators as appropriate. *For more information on the use of AND, OR, and NOT, see Search Strategies: AND, OR, NOT.
Below the search boxes you can also choose to limit your search to a particular format, i.e. books, articles, videos, etc., choose a date range, or select a library to search. If you're searching for articles you also have the option to limit them to peer-reviewed or scholarly articles.
To view the course reserves, click on the Course Reserves link in the menu bar across the top of the catalog. From here you will be able to browse the courses with reserves available or search by course or instructor.
The results list will give you a list of the courses that match your search. Clicking on a course will show you what items are available and where you can find it.
Before you can begin your research, you need to know which database(s) would be most useful for your topic. The library subscribes to over 200 databases covering a wide variety of topics. This may seem overwhelming at first, but there are a few simple ways of finding which database may be most relevant to you. To find the list of databases to which we subscribe and to learn more about them, visit the A-Z Databases page.
From your library's home page select A-Z Databases in the button menu.
You will see a list of all of our databases in alphabetical order. From here, you can sort the databases by subject area, i.e., criminal justice, history, or mathematics, or by database type, i.e., those containing images, articles, or e-books. Select the subject area that best matches your topic. Each database has an information button next to it. Once you've selected your subject area, use the information about the resource to determine if it is an appropriate resource for you.
When selecting by subject, the library will provide you with a list of "Best Bets" databases which should be more appropriate for your topic, as well as some multidisciplinary databases which could be helpful.
When in doubt, select one of the Library's multidisciplinary databases such as Academic OneFile, Academic Search Premier, or Research Library. These databases cover a wide range of topics, and are often linked to subject area databases.
You can also view one of the library's research guides, one of which you're using right now, which will suggest which databases could be useful for your topic.
Sample Guide:
While not subject specific, these databases may be useful for finding additional resources.
Additional research materials may be found freely and openly through Open Educational Resources (OER). Please watch the following video learn about what OER are and how to use OER. For recommended resources and for more information, visit our Open Educational Resources (OER) page.
Video: What Are OER? Created by Algonquin College Library under a Creative Commons license via YouTube.
Sometimes during the course of your research you will find a book or an article in one of our databases that our library does not have access to. This does not mean you are out of options. The library can request this book or article from another library and have a copy sent to our library or your email depending on the format. This is known as Interlibrary Loan or ILL.
Please see Requesting Interlibrary Loans for information about this process .
