Searching for Books

Search the the Library Catalog, infoLink, to locate books, videos, and government documents about your topic.

• Title Searching
  Select "Title Begins with.." from the drop down menu and type in all of the title, or just the first few words.
  
• Author Searching
  Select "Author (last name first)" from the drop down menu and type in the authors' name, starting with their last name, in the box.

OR

• Topic Searching
  Start with a keyword search using Boolean logic. Boolean Logic uses AND, OR, NOT to link your keywords together. The keyword search is the default search.

  legalization and marijuana
  (legalization or law or therapeutic) and marijuana
  (legal? or law) and marijuana
  (legal? retrieves legal, legalization)
  

It is always a good idea to think beyond just the keywords represented in your question or problem. There can often be many different words that describe the same topic, and you might have to try many different searches with different words to find the best information that you need.

Advance searching: Click on the title of a book found using a keyword search, and then click on any subject headings that best describes what you are looking for. This will bring up other books in the Library Catalog with the same subject headings.

For more information about using Library of Congress Subject Headings, see the LCSH guide.

For more information on how to find the book in the stacks, consult the guide Finding Books.

WATCH: Find Books Tutorial (with sound)

for more information on how to use infoLINK to find books in the Libraries.

You can also use Encore to search for books in the Libraries. For more information on how to use Encore, watch the tutorial below.

WATCH: Encore Tutorial (with sound)