Choosing Your Book
OK, so you've got a topic- narrowed down from United States history 1865-1990. Time to find a book on your specific topic!
We're going to continue to use the Dust Bowl as our example for this assignment.
Upon searching "Dust Bowl" in the catalog, we received 3,730 results. That's too many options- time to narrow that down
To search for physical books, follow these next steps.
To search for eBooks on your topic, skip to "Refine your Search Results with the Filters on the Left for Online Books"
If you would like a physical book to read- start with one filter- click "Held by the Library in Print"
Next, filter by "General Collection" and this will eliminate any books in the reference collection that cannot be checked out
Next, you can further filter your results by year of publication. More recently published books are more likely to have up to date information. The orange circle shows the number of results, and it is significantly less than before- we've gone from 3730 results down to 34, which is a much more manageable number. Next, let's look at the records of each book and find out which book would be ideal for your assignment.
If you would like an eBook on your topic, limit your results first by "Available Online"
Then, limit results by "books" in the "Resource Type" section
Now, you have 46 records you can look through of eBooks regarding the "Dust Bowl"
In this case, we're going to click on the first record for our physical book results to see if it's suitable for this assignment. Below is the record for Dust Bowl Migrants in the American Imagination. We first see that this book is available in BC's general collection.
Next, we're going to scroll down to view the description and see if this book meets the page requirement set forth in the assignment.
Use the instructions about finding reference books on the "Getting Started" tab (under the section- "Finding In-Print Reference Book in Library") to learn how to find your chosen book in the stacks. The process of finding general collection books is the same as finding reference book. The only difference is general collection books are the white labeled stacks versus the green labeled stacks for reference books.
If you have any trouble at all, don't hesitate to ask the librarian to help you find it.
Ok, now (hopefully) we've found our book, and it's time to read!
What if we can't find a book on our chosen topic?
- Try again. Go back to the reference section and pick a new topic
What if the book we want isn't available or doesn't meet the page number requirements?
- Try again. Look at other book records to find one that works and if one can't be found, find a new topic
Keep trying! You'll get there. If you feel lost at all in the process, check in with a librarian in-person or via chat and we can help you!