Lesson 7: Books

Increasing Your Knowledge

• Books offer more breadth and depth than most articles in a reference book or journal.  
  
  
• Books can give you a thorough introduction to a general subject.  
  
  
• They can also provide a very detailed look at a narrow section of a subject or discipline.
  
  
• You don't need to read the whole book!  Look at the table of contents or the index and select only those sections that are helpful to you. 
  
  
• The library may not have a complete book dedicated to your particular topic.  This does not mean there is no information in the library on that subject.
  
  Often a useful chapter on your topic can be found in a book dealing with the more general aspects of the topic.
  
  Say you are doing a paper on guns in the classroom.  A book on the broader topic of gun control will often have a chapter about guns in schools. 

How Old Is the Book?

• Be aware that, due to the amount of time it takes for a book to get into print, the information it provides can be substantially older than that in periodicals.  
  
  
• It is always wise to check the publication date of a book and be aware of any date limitations that may have been imposed by your instructor. 
  
  
• If you are doing a very current topic a book published in 1958 will probably not help.  However, if you are interested in some historical background  or want a classic work by a well known author, an older book may be appropriate. 
  
  
• Check the catalog to see if the library has anything on the subject you are researching.  Remember, if your topic is very narrow, it is quite possible that the AVC Library will not have a book dedicated entirely to your topic.

Finding Books in the AVC Library

To find books in the AVC library you will need to use our online Book Catalog.  

• The Book Catalog is an electronic catalog that provides access to books and other materials held in the library. 
  
  
• The catalog is composed of thousands of electronic records, each representing a book owned by the AVC library.
  Each record is divided into a number of fields including: title, author, call number, imprint, description and subjects.
  
  
• To find a book or other library holding, you may search the catalog by keyword, author, title, subject, and series.  
  For your paper you will probably find the following three indexes most useful: General Keyword Index, Subject Keyword Index or Subject Alphabetical Index.
  
  

• Remember, when you are searching either of the subject indexes, you are actually searching through a list of the Library of Congress Subject Headings.  
  
  If you do not know the correct subject heading for your topic, you could get a message that looks like this:
  
  
  Copyright Dynix Corporation
  

• Do not assume that there is nothing on your subject in the library!  
  
  You may have been using words that the catalog does not recognize.  If this happens to you, please see the librarian for help.  
  
  Sometimes the difference between getting a lot of information and getting nothing is just knowing the right words!