Library Information Skills Workshops 2010/2011
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Finding items from your
reading list
Hands on activity workbook
Activity 1: Finding books from your reading list
How can you tell if something is a book?
You will usually see the author, title and publication details. Your class tutor may have included the
Library classmark – this will help you find the title in the Library
Frank, R. H. (2008). Microeconomics and behavior (7th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Author
Title
What to enter in the Library catalogue
You can enter the authors surname and/or any words from the title.
So from the above example you could enter:

Frank Microeconomics
If your book has more than one author you can just use one of the names. If your title has very
common words it’s best to enter both this and the authors name e.g. Smith Economics
Book chapters
Sometimes individual book chapters are listed. Now you will see the author and title details of the
individual chapter in addition to the editor, title and publication details of the overall book
Chapter Author
Chapter Title
Brewer, T. (2005). Global warming in the 21st century: new issues for business strategy,
government policy and research on business-government relations. In R. Grosse (Ed.),
International business and government relations in the 21st century. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Overall Book Title
Book Editor
What to enter in the Library catalogue
It’s important to enter details from the overall book, and not from the individual book chapter.
So you can enter the editors surname and one or two words from the overall title. From the above
example you could enter

Grosse international business
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Library Information Skills Workshops 2010/2011
Activity 2: Looking at the Library catalogue
The brief results screen looks like
this – you will see that items out on
loan are marked in red, and items
on the shelf are in green. You’ll also
see the classmark and the
collection area. You need both of
these to find the book in the Library.
You can narrow your results by
using the options on the left hand
side of the screen
Click on the record to see the full
details.
If the book is located in the Course collection you’ll see all the different loan statuses
You can see similar items or click on the subjects to find similar books
Items on the shelf are displayed in
green, items out on loan to
another student are displayed in
red
Click on the floor plan to see a
map of the relevant floor
This example shows the different 1
week loans, set texts (24 hour
loan) and 3 day loans which are
available
Activity 3: Searching by classmark
If you want to search for a specific classmark you can do this in the Library catalogue, just choose
Classmark in the dropdown list next to the Find button.
1. With the Classmark search option showing (as above) enter your search terms e.g. HM548
B63 and click on the Find button
2. Click on your chosen result to see the full details of the item
Note: to see books at similar classmarks, repeat the search in our Classic Catalogue.
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Library Information Skills Workshops 2010/2011
Activity 4: Finding Journals from your reading list
How can you tell if something is a journal article?
Article authors
Article Title
Love, I, Preve, L, & Sarria-Allende, V. (2007). Trade credit and bank credit: Evidence from recent
financial crises. Journal of Financial Economics, 83(2), 453-469.
Journal Title
Journal volume, part number and pages
Journal articles, like book chapters, will show both the details of the individual title and the overall
journal.
You may see author and title details of the article, then the journal title and specific details for the
individual article such as the year and volume
What to enter in the Library catalogue
Always enter the title of the journal, not the individual article details
From the above example you would enter:
Journal of Financial Economics – and choose ‘Journal Title’ from the search options.
The catalogue lists both
printed and electronic
journals
Online titles are marked as
‘electronic’ whilst you can
see the classmark of any
printed titles in this case
HG23
Click on the electronic
copy. Then when the
record opens click on the
‘click here for full text’ link.
The full list of online options will open – make sure you choose the correct option for the year
you need
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Library Information Skills Workshops 2010/2011
Activity: 5 Looking at your own record
You can view and renew your book loans.
Favourites & Tagging
Once logged on you can use the Favourites option to create your own ‘virtual reading list’. This
means you’ll only ever need to type in book details once. As soon as you’ve added a title to your
Favourites list it will be stored for you to retrieve at a later date, meaning you won’t need to spend
time typing details in again. Favourites are personal to you and are not visible to other Library
users
Add tags to your
favourites to help keep
track of which essay or
course you need them
for. You could add
course codes, keywords
etc. Tags are personal to
you and are not visible
to other Library users
The Add to Favourites
option box will open up.
Add your chosen tag in the
Tags field – you can also
add notes if you prefer.
Click on Save then on
Close.
The item will be added to
your favourites
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Library Information Skills Workshops 2010/2011
Further Help
More help on searching the catalogue and looking at your own account is available via the ‘Help
and Information’ option at the top right hand side of the screen – you can even watch a short video
to show you more.
If you’re in the Library why not ask Library staff at the Help Desk on the First floor of the Library if
you need any further help or advice.
Academic Support Librarian 10/2010
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