English 520: Seminar in Research Methods & Design

Hints for Finding Books

• Have a specific author?

Try authorlastname criticism as your keywords. The Library of Congress Subject Heading is lastname, firstname -- criticism and interpretation.

• Have a theme or motif? Brainstorm synonyms for the theme and use OR in between. In the EWU Library Catalog, the OR must be in ALLCAPS.

Example: feminist poetry? (poems OR poetry) AND (women OR feminis*)

What’s in the catalog?

• All of EWU’s physical holdings, including books, videos, CDs, journals, and more.
• All the physical holdings of all the Summit Libraries—over 9 million titles!
• Citations for millions of articles.

How do I search the catalog? | How do I locate an item? | I can't find the specific book or video I want. 

How do I search the catalog?

Know the title or author?

If you know the exact title of the item, type in the title "in quotes" and the last name of the author (if known).

Or

Click Browse in the top bar and type in the title and/or author. (Note: The Browse function only works for EWU holdings of books or videos, not for titles held by other libraries.)

Find Books on an Author, Work, Theory, or Motif

Type in your keywords. For one or more terms, type the keywords as you would in Google, no AND necessary, e.g. poe gothic.

• Put exact phrases in quotes, e.g. "new historicism".
• To find variations on a word, type the stem of the word followed by *, e.g. femin* to find feminism, feminist, etc.
• If you want to look for either word/phrase, the Boolean operator OR must be in ALLCAPS and in parentheses, e.g. (american OR "united states").

I would suggest using the Advanced Search if you have a fairly complex search. See below.

Refining Your Search

Because the EWU Library Catalog has records for all types of resources, you will very likely need to limit your search results. Note all the limiters on the left side, as well as some quick limiters at the top.

• Click on the limiter to narrow by the one limiter.
• You can narrow to more than one in the category by clicking the corresponding boxes on the left of the limiter (such as limiting by Format to both Print Books and eBooks). Just hover over the limiter to see the box.
• You can exclude particular limiters by clicking the icon on the right of the limiter. Just hover over the limiter to see this icon.   

Useful limiters:

• Availability -- Available in the Library -- this will quickly show you the books and videos we have on the shelves in the library
• Availability -- Full Text Online -- this will limit to the articles and eBooks available
• Format -- limit to books, audio visual (for DVDs, CDs, etc.)
• Date -- click on the From/To dates to update, and click Refine
• Physical Location -- easiest way to limit to a particular collection, such as the Curriculum Center or Reference
• Subject Terms -- because the subject terms given to articles and books are can be different, it is best to narrow by Format first, then Subject Term.

Mark Your Records

See the push pin icon on the far right (labeled "Keep this item" if you hover over it)? 

Click it and it will change the push pin icon and highlight the brief record yellow. You have marked a record temporarily. Click the push pin icon in the top right corner to view your marked records.

• Note: To permanently mark a record, you need to be logged in. Click the Sign In tab in the top right corner.

How do I locate an item?

The last line of the brief record describes where the item is located.

If the wording is green, that means it is readily available, either online or physically on our shelves at the JFK Library in Cheney or Spokane Academic Library.

• For physical items, note the location: library (Cheney or Spokane), floor, and call number.
• For online items: click the green wording (Full text available, Online access, etc.) to link out to the item. 

If the wording is yellow, that means you'll have to request it. Click Check request options - held by Summit libraries. You must be logged in to request the item -- you'll be prompted to if you aren't already.

Once you are logged in, click the link Place Summit request (4-8 days). The form will ask you:

• Volume number (optional) -- only matters if it is a multi-volume set and you only want one volume
• Pick up/delivery location (required) -- which library do you want the item delivered to -- the default is Cheney
• Comment (optional)

​Click REQUEST. You will be notified via your EWU email address when the item is ready to be picked up. 

If the wording is gray, that means either:

• The EWU copy of the item is checked out. You will have to request it from a Summit library, or via Interlibrary Loan if there is no other copy in Summit.
• The article is not available online. It may be in a physical copy of the source (and it will display the date range held and call number), or you will have to request it via Interlibrary Loan.

I can't find the specific book or video I want.

While the EWU Library Catalog has millions of records, it only will search through the holdings of the 39 Summit libraries. If you can't find a specific book, video, CD, etc., then go to the EWU WorldCat Catalog and re-do your search. WorldCat has records from thousands of libraries worldwide. You may request the item via Interlibrary Loan.

Having issues with Adobe Digital Editions? Here's my advice.

Step 1. Create an Adobe ID, if you don't already have one.

Go to https://account.adobe.com/. 

Technically you don't need one for the laptop Adobe Digital Editions, but you do for the mobile ones. And if you want the ebooks synced across devices, you need one.

Step 2. Download Adobe Digital Editions for laptops and/or mobile devices.

Go to https://www.adobe.com/solutions/ebook/digital-editions/download.html.

Be sure to sign in with your Adobe ID!

Step 3. Go to ProQuest Ebook Central to locate relevant titles. Click the Download Book button.

You might luck out and the book is a simple PDF file. But most aren't.

On a laptop, skip through the first 2 messages about what device and needing Adobe Digital Editions. On the 3rd screen, click the blue Download button, and that should download a file with .acsm extension. Click on the file once fully downloaded, and it should open up Adobe Digital Editions, or just tell it to open that file with Adobe Digital Editions. 

Was a couple more steps on the iPhone. Again, skip through the first 2 messages. Click the Download button, then click Download Linked File. In the Safari browser, the file can be found by clicking on the down arrow in a circle in the upper right corner. Then it shows you an .acsm file that's only 2km. Click the upload icon in the upper right corner and select the app to open it with. (I had to click on More and then scroll my apps to find Copy to Digital Editions.)