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ENG 112 - CCP: Finding Books & E-Books

Why Use Books?

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). 

Finding Books

Miami University Online Catalog
Search By: Keyword, Author, Title or Subject Heading
Look For: Call Number, Location, and Availability
Request Item for delivery from other MU Libraries

Tips:

  • When searching for books by an author, enter the name like this LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME.  Example: Morrison, Toni
  • 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.