EGS 320 (Hamilton): Finding Books

Miami University Online Catalog
Search By: Keyword, Author, Title or Subject Heading
Limit By: General Topic and Where The Item is Located
Look For: Call Number, Location, and Availability
Request Item for delivery from other MU Libraries
Continue Searching in OhioLINK for unavailable titles

Tips:

• When searching for books by an author, enter the name like this LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME and choose 'author' on the pull down menu next to the text box.
• When searching for information about an author, enter the name the same way and choose 'subject' on the pull down menu.
• To find literary criticism of an author's writing, enter the author's name as above and add "criticism and interpretation" to the second text box.
• You can search for a specific work and add "criticism and interpretation" as well, but you will receive far fewer results because there aren't as many books written about a single title from an author's body of work. You will have better results searching for books that review many of an author's works and finding a chapter or several pages dedicated to the novel you have read.

Miami University Online Catalog

Search: As described in the box above.

Get Only Ebooks: In the left-hand column, click on the arrow next to "Material Type" and then check the box next to "eBooks". (red arrow in screenshot)

Change Date Range: by sliding the rule under "Publication Date" or by typing in specific years in the boxes. (red box in screenshot) Your results list will then only include items that were published within your specified date range.

You do not need to read an entire book cover to cover in order to use it as a source in your research assignment.

Look at the table of contents to see if there is a chapter that addresses your narrower aspect of a broader topic covered in a book. For example: Is there a chapter about Ohio's response to the opioid epidemic in a book about the broader national response?

Or you can use the book's index to see which specific pages a book contain information about your topic and read only those pages. (For example: Perhaps a book about the opioid epidemic includes information about Ohio drug courts on pages 72-75).