Finding Books with Our Online Catalog - Primo
Our online catalog PRIMO is the best place to start looking for books in our collection. If you know what item you are looking for, search our catalog by the title or author. *If searching by title, remember to eliminate words like "the" or "a" that appear at the beginning of the title.
Because books tend to have a larger scope than articles, try to think of more general terms. For example: It is unlikely that we will have a book about a specific font. If you are doing research on Helvetica and require a book, try thinking about your topic more broadly by searching for books on "typography" or "graphic design". These books may include information on your topic. Check the book's index and table of contents for more details.
Also: Books in the stacks are arranged by subject, so if you are able to locate one book on your topic, chances are you'll be able to find similar books in the same call number area. *ESU uses the Dewey Decimal Classification System. You'll need to know your item's call number to locate it in the stacks. This information is listed in the item record in our online catalog.
Subject Headings
A subject heading is a phrase used to describe content or subject matter. Subject headings are more uniform and follow a classification system and structure. Subject headings will look like this in the online catalog:
Clicking on any of the subject headings will lead to more items in the same category. Because subject headings are applied to an item by cataloging experts, they are a useful way to find items on your topic.
812 American drama
822 English drama
832 German drama
842 French drama
862 Spanish drama
872 Latin dramatic poetry and drama
882 Classical Greek drama
890 Other literatures
When you locate a book through the library catalog, click "Text item call number" to get a text message with the info you need to find it! It will appear on the search result screen, and in the item record with an image of two links next to it.
