Skip to Main Content

Library Research Methods - Graduate Students

Find Library Resources

Circulating Books

The Leatherby Libraries Catalog contains records for books, videos, and other materials owned by the Library. If searching for a topic, start with Keyword.  

If searching for a person, start with subject and type in the last name:

Or, you can browse the catalog by subject: 

 

 

You can also search the library catalog by their material types (e.g., DVDs):

Use Advanced Search

Steps for downloading EBSCO E-Books to your computer:

  1. Search Discover or EBSCO E-Books and locate a book you want to check out.
  2. Click on the PDF Full Text and/or EPUB Full-Text link to have the book opened on the screen.  
  3. Click on the E-Book's Download link to borrow and download the book. If you choose this option, you will see the message:
    • To Create an MyEBSCOhost Account: Complete a short form to choose your personal username and password.  Remember this login information; you will need it to download E-Books.
  4. "Please sign in to your My EBSCOhost account to check availability and download" if you are not already signed in with your MyEBSCOhost account.
  5. You will see a pop-up box asking you to "Download eBook (Borrow)" the title you selected. You will have two format options to download and up to 7 days to borrow the book.  
    • Adobe Digital Editions: You will need to have or install the free Adobe Digital Editions software to download a book to your computer.  
    • Adobe ID: You may need to create an Adobe ID if you do not already have one. 
  6. You will see a pop-up box with the message confirming the E-Book was downloaded successfully. 
  7. Find the Adobe Digital Editions program on your computer.  Open the program to read the book you had checked out.
  8. E-Books are only available during the limited checkout period.

 

Searching Techniques

  • Truncation: Use an asterisk (*) after the root of a word to search for all variants of that word. This expands your search by retrieving more results.
    • Example: theat* will retrieve results for theater, theatre, theaters, theatrical, etc.
       
  • Phrase searching: Use quote marks to search for a phrase as a concrete unit, rather than as separate terms. This narrows your search to make it more precise.
    • Example: "text messaging", "college students", "job satisfaction"
       
  • Booleans
    • AND: Use this to require that search results include all keywords. AND is usually implied in most database searches. This narrows your search to make it more precise.
      • Example: philosophy AND business to find results that include both terms, rather than just one or the other.
         
    • OR: Use this to indicate that search results must include any of a string of keywords. This expands your search by allowing you to search for multiple terms, only one of which must be included in a search result.
      • Example: books OR literature will retrieve results that include at least one of those keywords.
         
    • NOT: Use this to exclude a term from your search result. This narrows your search to make it more precise.
      • Example: Shakespeare NOT Hamlet will retrieve results about William Shakespeare and any of his writings except for the play Hamlet.

Boolean search results