Lesson 2

Books are a good way to begin research on any topic. Often, scholarly works, such as biographies and literary criticisms, are a great asset, and many of these books contain bibliographies, which can lead you to a number of other sources.

How to Use the Online Catalog

There are two main ways patrons may search for books using iPAC. To initiate a search, click on the search tab and choose whether to do a basic or power search.

The basic search allows you to perform a search using several types of browse or keyword search methods (i.e. Title Browse or Title Keyword). The power search allows you to do a search using more than one of the different types of search methods. A browse search will generate an alphabetical search result list based on the terms that you entered, whereas a keyword search will generate a random search result list for the terms used. For example, if you are searching for the book "Gone With The Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, it would be better to use the Title Browse search since you already know the exact title of the book. However, if you were looking for any books that had the words gone, with, and wind in the title, then it would be better to use the Title Keyword search. When searching for an author, put the author's last name in first for the browse search (it doesn't matter which order you put the author's name in a keyword search). The examples below show a browse search result on the left and a keyword search result on the right.

When you find a book that you believe would be useful, click on the title of the book to get to the bibliographic record screen. This screen provides the information you will need in order to cite the book in your research project. It also displays the holdings information to let you know if the book is available to be checked out and where it is located in the collection. If the book is already checked out, the status will list the date the book is due to be returned to the library. If the book is checked in and available for check out (see 'Important Notes' below for more information about items available for check out), you can place a request for it by clicking on the request item tab. The next screen will ask you for your library barcode number located on the back of your library id card. Once you've entered the barcode information, it will take you to a screen where you can add comments if needed. From there, you can click on the submit button and the request will come to the Fountain-New Library electronically. A library staff member will pull the book off of the shelf, check the book out to you and have it delivered to your site. Once you are finished with the book within the due date, you can simply return the book to your site director/office for the book to be re-delivered back to the library.