If you need a book or article, start with the Find Resources bar on the homepage. ALWAYS click on Sign In on the top right of the page. Signing in gives you quick access to borrow a book from another college, pin materials you find interesting to your favorites, and use the AI Research Assistant. The search automatically brings up a list of books on the shelf, articles you read on your device, and ebooks. Use the filters on the left to limit the results to a date range, subject, type of material, and more. For more help on searching, check out our Searching for Specific Information Sources page.
Need a book on the shelf? How do you know if it IS on the shelf? Underneath the name of the material, look for "Available at the Marie Burgess Library" and a series of letters and numbers following. That series of letters is called a Call Number.
Click on the "Call Number" tab on this page to learn how to read this code on the spines of books.
A call number tell you where the book is located in the library. Each book in the library has a unique call number. Call numbers appear on the spines of books and journals and in the library's catalog. The call number is made up of a combination of numbers and letters that are read left-to-right, top-to-bottom. The call numbers used by the library are classified by subject, so you can often find several helpful books on the same shelf or nearby. Each line of the call number represents a separate piece of information relating to the item.
This information is used to find an item's exact location in the stacks.
For most academic libraries, the type of call numbers used are associated with the Library of Congress classification system. This link is to a document on the Library of Congress website that explains what specific topics are covered within each main subject: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/
Reading a Library of Congress Call Number
PE1431.G73 2014
P Language and Literature ( General Subject)
PE English Language (Subclass)
PE1431 Modern English ( Subtopic)
PE1431.G73 Graff (author)
PE1431.G73 2014 2014 indicates that this edition was published in 2014
PE1431.G73 2014 They Say/I Say: the Moves that Matter in Academic Writing
If you type in a topic and don't see ANYTHING in the first page of results that seems to match what you want, PLEASE email us, use the chat box if it is during library hours, or visit us in the library.
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What if you want a book from the shelf, but we don't have one on your topic? Or, do you need a newer book than what we have available? You can request one through PASCAL! All of the college libraries work together to purchase databases and lend each other books.
NOTE: It can take up to a WEEK for requested books and other materials to arrive. Please think ahead and make your request in a timely fashion!
Watch the video below for step by step directions on requesting books from other colleges through PASCAL.