ENGL 142: Intro Crtv Writing: Narrative (Philip)

Navigating the Library Stacks:
At Holy Cross, we organize our books using a system called Library of Congress Classification or LCC. LCC is based on the subject of the books. Each letter represents a specific subject. Each subject is broken down into more specific letter sections, each of which is further broken down into number ranges for specific topics. Most call numbers have additional  numbers and letters on the end of them, which are used to give each book a unique spot on the library shelves. 

In general:

• Reference Books are in the Main Reading Room. These books must stay in the library.

• Books whose numbers begin with letters A through G are on the Mezzanine level (1 floor down from the Main Reading Room).

• Books whose numbers begin with N or TR are in the Visual Arts Wing on the main level. 

• Books whose numbers begin with letters H through Z are mostly on the Ground (bottom) level.

• Books whose numbers begin with M are in the Music Library in Brooks Hall.

• Books whose numbers begin with Q, R, S or T are in the Science Library in Swords Hall.

Visit our Call Numbers guide to learn more about how call numbers work. 

Use the handouts below to learn more about locating materials in Dinand Library.

Locating Book Chapters: 

Locating book chapters that you may want to read can take a little more time. Here are some creative ways that you might find book chapters: 

• CrossSearch -- some, but not all, of our books have tables of contents in the catalog that you can check; 
• Google Books typically have limited previews, but if you can see enough to locate a helpful chapter, we can get you a copy; 
• Similarly, Amazon.com previews; 
• Google Scholar sometimes includes citations for book chapters (and searches across Google Books); 
• Databases (some, but not all, include book chapter citations specifically; America History & Life is one); 
• Citations in bibliographies of articles, e-books, or other books that you may have checked out before we closed. 

You can also try searching WorldCat, which searches the collections of libraries around the world (including ours!). Sometimes the information about a book is listed differently in WorldCat, allowing you to find sources that you would never have pulled up in our own catalog. 

Each of these strategies can be used to....

(1) Find the titles of book chapters in our own libraries, which library staff can scan and send to you; or 

(2) Find the titles of book chapters held by other libraries, which can be requested on Interlibrary Loan.

Searching for Ebooks:

To search for ebooks owned by Holy Cross, use CrossSearch.

Then, use the Resource Type limiter in the side navigation to focus your search on e-books. 

You may also want to search in our specific e-book collections: 

When searching within a specific ebook collection, you will be able to search the full text of each book allowing more detailed searching. For example, you may search the library catalog and not find any titles on your topic, but a search in ebrary might find a book with one chapter focused on your topic.

Accessing E-Books: 

In most cases, your best option is to use the "Read Online" feature for our e-books. Most academic e-books do not work with devices that you might use to read personal e-books, such as a Kindle or Nook (believe me -- this frustrates librarians too!). There is software that you can download onto a PC or iPad, but this can be difficult to use, so if you have a stable internet connection, I recommend reading online. 

However, if you would like to download the software, or if you are having trouble accessing any particular e-book, please feel free to contact us (libref@holycross.edu) or see our e-books guide linked below: 

NOTE that most e-books do have limits on printing. Each publisher has different functionality and rules for downloading and printing ebooks. 

Other E-Books: 

In addition to our collections, here are some other places that you can look for e-books for your project: 

 Other Libraries

With a BPL eCard, available to all Massachusetts residents and resident students (even if you're currently learning from out-of-state), you can access e-books via the Boston Public Library: 

Searching Using Keywords or phrases

When you're using databases, you want to use keywords to search for materials related to your topic. To develop keywords for a search, think about the topics you want to explore - you might try searching a book title and some of the major themes within the work, or an author and reviews or commentary to see what other people think of their work. Lets say your project is about the book Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin. Here is a list of keywords I might use to find journal articles on that topic:

Left hand of darkness, science fiction, ecology, feminism, environmental science, critique, commentary, Hainish Cycle, violence, anti-violence.

You can search for these terms individually or try combining them for more refined results. Try using search terms like AND, OR or NOT.

If I use the terms "Ursula K. Leguin" and "Left hand of darkness" and "criticism" I will get results that contain all of those search terms together.

"review" OR "criticism" and "Left Hand of Darkness" will bring up results that include the book title as well as either review or criticism or both words together.

Use NOT when you want to exclude a word or phrase.

Here are some general tips to guide you in choosing your search terms:

• Use concepts and other nouns as your keywords.  Think of words that are likely to be used in titles (or that you have seen in titles).
• Spend some time brainstorming keywords and search terms. Use the subject headings/tags in each database to help you think of search terms. For example, if you search for "Left Hand of Darkness" and feminism, the subject headings might also contain words like Femininity, Masculinity, androgyny, etc. 
• Use an asterisk * after the root of a word to find all forms of a word. For example, a search for review* will find sources that use not only the word review but also synonyms like critique or commentary.

Bonus Tip:

When you find a good article, look at its References or Works Cited list. That will often lead you to other useful sources. You can also look at information such as the name of the journal or the author for ideas of other ways to search.