This tutorial demonstrates how to find a book by topic, using the Pfau Library Catalog.
Begin at Pfau Library's home page. You'll find the link to the Pfau Library Catalog below "Find Books."
For this example, I want to find books about the role of the United Nations in the war in Bosnia. I'll type these two terms, as my keyword search. (Keyword is the default search in the catalog, so I don't need to change the search options menu.) I'll type my search inside the box as: united nations and bosnia
My search gets 11 possible matches. I'll scroll down to review them.
Title number 7 is "The New Interventionism, 1991-1994: The United Nations experience in Cambodia, former Yugoslavia, and Somalia." This title looks like a good match for my topic. This book is shelved on the 3rd floor of the library. I need the call number, DS554.8 .N48 1996, to find it on the shelf. "Available" means this book is not checked out to anyone else.
Clicking on the location (3rd Floor) will take me to a map of the floor. Want to learn how to find your book with the call number? Check the OLLIE tutorial: "Locate a Book on the Shelf."
I notice that some of my search results talk about Kosovo as well as Bosnia. I'll try changing my search to find more material. I can change my search in the box at the top of the page. My keywords for this search will be: united nations and kosovo.
This search found 5 results.
The title of the second result is "Kosovo Decision Time [electronic resource] How and When?" This item is online. Just below the title is a link that says "Available online; click for access." This link takes me directly to the document (a PDF file) so I can read, print, or save it.
Let's back up to the search results page and look at the last title. "Kosovo and the Challege of Humanitarian Intervention." Even though this book isn't available online, clicking on the title can tell me more about it. The record page has more information that could help my research. For this book, I have the table of contents, so I know what each chapter is about. One of the chapters is titled "The United Nations System and the Kosovo Crisis." This chapter is related to my topic, so I might want to get this book. Below the table of contents are the "Subjects." By clicking on any of the Subjects, I can find more books about these topics.
Summing up the book search process:
(Want to learn about effective keyword searching? Check the OLLIE tutorial: "Choosing Keywords.")
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