Why use books?

Do you use Google for all your college research? or Yahoo! or Ask Jeeves? Do you not understand why this annoys your teachers so much?

Most internet search services (called "search engines") usually do not use any judgment about what websites they list. (Remember, search engines don't search the internet itself; they create lists of webpages and search those lists.) The big deal with search engines is the number of pages they index, not the quality of those pages.

Using a search engine is fine if you are looking for a source that you know should be trustworthy, such as a national association on your topic, or a page at a school that you know has a good program on that subject. (For more on doing internet research, see "Why Google is not Enough" and "Doing Internet Research".) But not everything those search engines find is reliable.

This is NOT to say that all internet research is bad. There are lots of trustworthy sites on the internet. All of the library's article databases, which give you access to articles from reliable, scholarly periodicals, are delivered to us over the internet. But it's not a foolproof source of information.

Of course, not absolutely everything that's published in hard copy on paper is reliable, either. However, most publishers take some care to not publish anything that's so untruthful that it will cause them problems. Books from scholarly publishers ("University of XYZ Press" and such commercial publishers as Gale, Scribners, and Greenwood Press, to name a few) are even better sources of good, reliable information.

When the library purchases books, we usually get materials recommended by scholars in the subject of the materials. This gives you another layer of dependability.

How to find books

To find library books, use the "online catalog". Think of this as Google for all the materials the library owns. The URL is library.columbastate.edu -- not hard to remember. The catalog defaults to a keyword search, very much like the basic web searches you do from the opening page of Google. (For more information on using the online catalog to find library materials, go here, or ask at the Reference Desk on the first floor.) When you get a list of results, first look at the titles in the "Full Title" column.

A word to the wise -- your research topic should be a manageable size. Don't try to do research on terrorism, do research on terrorism in a certain time period, or in a certain county, or on a specific terrorism group. Now you may not find enough books that are only on this subset of the big topic -- you will probably have to use parts of books on the big topic. Keep this in mind as you look at the results list.

When you see one that looks as if it would be useful to your research, next look for the "call number". This is how you find the books on the library shelves. The call number will be in red type in the green box under the title. Make a note of the entire number of each book, from the letter or letters beginning the number to the end (frequently a year). These call numbers probably look different from the call numbers in your public library. Many college libraries use a different call number plan from the one used in public libraries.

All the circulating books (books you can check out) are on the second floor of the library. The ends of the rows of shelves (called "stacks") are labeled with the beginning letters of the call numbers in those stacks. The call numbers run from the front of the library (by the elevator and computer lab) to the back, and then start over:

The individual call numbers are "decimal" -- that is, that little point in the middle of the call number changes how you read it. . HV 200 come before HV 2000, but HV 200 .A2 comes before HV 200 .201. When comparing call numbers, add as many zeros after the decimal point as you need to make them match -- .2 = .200; 200 comes before 201.

For more information on understanding call numbers, go here.

Or ask for help at the Reference Desk on the first floor of the library. If necessary, we'll go upstairs and help you find the books you need. No one expects you to read call numbers you've never seen before -- learning to read these call numbers is one of the things you learn in college.

Using books for research: You don't have to read the whole thing

Once you've found the books on your topic, you don't have to read them cover to cover  (so don't just get small books!) In the back of most books is a list of the subjects in that book, and the page numbers on which that subject appears. This is called an "index". So take your books, some of which may be on the big subject, and check the index of each one for your smaller topic. You may need to think some about other names for your smaller subject. But if you've looked for your smaller subject in a couple of places and you don't find it in a specific book, it's probably not there. So don't bother to check that book out -- put it in the "carrel" (the little table with the partition around the back) by the elevator. We'll put it away for you.

If you do find your subject listed in the index, this is probably a book you want to use. You only need to read the pages on your subject listed in the index, and take notes on those pages. The rest of the book might be interesting, but you don't need to read it before you finish your research project.

Wait, there's more!

For more on doing research see:

The folks at the Reference Desk on the first floor of the library. We are waiting for your questions. Learning to use the library is part of what you learn in college, no one expects you to be able to do this on your own the first time.

The online catalog tutorial.

The library's Research Assistance webpages, including more on doing internet research, and how to "cite" (identify) your research sources.