Research skills: Literature search: How to find books

Handy hints before you begin

Simple Library Catalogue searching - basic skills

To find books in the Library's collections you need to use the Library Catalogue.

If you are not sure how to use the Catalogue you should have a look at our Basic skills tutorials. They will show you how to find a book if you know its title, and how to find what books the Library has by a particular author:

• Search the Library Catalogue for a Title



• Search the Library Catalogue for books by an Author

The tutorials are in video format: you'll need to have Adobe's Flash player installed on your computer.

Finding books on a specific French studies topic

French assignments will often ask you write an essay on an individual author or a particular text. The best way to find critical works (books) on your chosen author or text is to use the option on the Library Catalogue. I've put together a series of linked images of web pages showing the whole process step by step.

You can also use the Subject Heading option to find books in the Library Catalogue on a topic other than a specific author or text, such as surrealism. As well, you should also use the option which will find even more books on surrealism.

Can't find your book?

If you are looking for books on a set topic as part of your course work, you should bear in mind that there will be other French students looking for books on that same topic; you may find that when you go to find books on the Library shelves that another student has beaten you to it. A good strategy is to have a look in the relevant Reshelving area; there you should find trolleys with books that are waiting to go back to their correct places in the Main collection sequence after having been returned from loan, or after people have read them in the Library.
Here's another useful strategy: if, say, you are looking for critical works on Maupassant's novel Une Vie, and there are none on the shelves, think laterally! Have a look at general critical books about Guy de Maupassant, which will be shelved just before books on the individual novels. Check the indexes of these books to see if they contain a chapter, or at least some pages, on the novel Une Vie.

Remember, too, that if a book is on loan you can Request it - just click on the Requests tab on the Catalogue page. The person who has the book will be asked to return it within one week; we'll email you to tell you can collect it as soon as it has been returned.

Let's find some books!!

Click when you are ready to start.

Remember: click anywhere on the images on the following pages, or on the green arrow button, to go to the next page.