How to find a book
If you need to look for a book, possibly one from your reading list, the first place to look is the Library Catalogue.
The entry in your reading list might look like this:
Denscombe, M. (2017). The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects (6th ed.). Open University Press.
Firstly, go to the Library Catalogue. The catalogue holds details of every item held in the TU Dublin City Campus libraries, including print books. Click on the down arrow beside the word 'Keyword' and choose either 'Author' or 'Title'. In this example we will do a Title search.
Enter the title, "The good research guide", in the search window and click Submit or press Return.
If there is more than one book with your title in the catalogue, you will see a list of titles in the summary results screen. Scroll down to find the entry for your book.
Check all the publication details i.e. the full book title, author (as there can be more than one book with the same title but written by different authors), publication date, edition, to make sure you have the correct book.
If there are a few editions of a book, you should usually choose the most recent edition unless your lecturer wants you to read (a chapter from) an older edition.
Here is our book:
Click on the title of the book you want, this will bring you to the full record.
As you can see, we have several copies of this book. These can be held in different locations, so be sure to check the location of the copy you are looking for. You can find the different library locations here.
You also need to check whether the book is a Lending or Week Loan book, which you can borrow, or a Library Use book which can only be viewed in the library.
If the status of a copy says 'Due' and has a date, the book is on loan to another patron. You can reserve a copy of your book if all the copies are on loan.
Before you look for your book in the library make sure there is at least one copy with the status 'Available'. Take a note of the 'CALL NO.' which is where the book will be shelved. It can also be called the 'Class Number', 'Shelf Number', or 'Spine Label'.
If you see a bar at the bottom of the list of copies (as above), click on it and you will see additional copies.
N.B. :There can be e-books in your results as well as print books. If you want to only see the print books in the results list, choose the Limit/Sort Search option at the top of the search results screen. Then, in Material Type, pick PRINTED MATL, and then click Submit. This will give a list of just print books.
Finally, taking the CALL NO. and publication details, follow the signs in the library to the correct shelf where you will find your book. Bring it with your student card, to one of the self issue machines where you can borrow it, or to the issue desk where a librarian will issue it to you.
If you have any problem finding a book, or using the self-issue machine, please contact your library / librarian for help. See details on the Contact Us page if you are searching the catalogue off-campus. If you are in the library, ask for help at the main desk.
Click below for printable instructions: