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AN 355: Gender and Anthropology: Finding Books

This guide is in support of AN 355: Gender and Anthropology at the University of South Alabama.

Books

You can find books through 4 main pathways:

  1. OneSearch, the Library's main search feature. (Filter your search results to only show resources: books and e-books.)
    1. You can find physical books (through the call number) and e-books (through links).
    2. Not all subscription e-books will appear in the search results.
  2. Library e-Book List
    1. The Library subscribes to separate e-book collections.
    2. You can find e-books that don't appear in the One Search results here.
  3. Searches outside of the library
    1. WorldCat is a website that allows you to search for almost any book that has ever been catalogued in any library. You can use WorldCat results to find books in nearby libraries, or you can find books to then request through the Library's InterLibrary Loan service.
    2. Google Books is a search engine inside of Google. You will only get full-text results for books in the public domain. You can also find titles to request through Library's InterLibrary Loan.
    3. Project Gutenberg is an online collection of digitized books that are in the public domain.
  4. In a book or article you like, read the bibliography/references. Let that author do your research for you.
    1. If you find an interesting book in the bibliography, you can search for the book in SOUTHcat (by title, not IBSN).
    2. If the book isn't in SOUTHcat, you can request the book through Inter-library loan.

Finding Physical Books

You can find a physical book in the Marx Library based off its call number.

If you found the book through One Search, you can see the call number by clicking on "access options" in the item's search result.

This is a search result for the book "Afro-Latin America"

The book's catalog record inside of SOUTHcat will include the call number. First check the status to see if the book is checked out.

This is a catalog record for the book, "Afro-Latin America"

The call number is listed under the Holdings Information section.

The call number is read left-to-right. In this example, you need to first find the F section of the Library.

You can see which floor each letter is on by looking at our Directory guides posted around the Library. F falls in Bookstacks A - HB, which is on floor 3.

Photo of the Marx Library Directory with Call Number and Location information

The ends of our bookstacks are labeled with call number ranges. Once you have found the bookstacks that have F, look for the bookstack that includes F 1419, the first part of the callnumber.

Photo of the end of a bookstack that contains the ranges F 869 - F 1418 and F 1418 - F 2846

The books are in numerical order, left-to-right, then moving down to the shelf below.

Find the section that starts with F 1419. Depending on how many books we have on a topic, this might cover multiple shelves or just a few books. All of these books share a general topic with the book you want; they might also be useful for your research!

Photo of a row of books that all start with the call number F 1419

Select your book. When I am looking at multiple books that all have the same call number, I look for the year at the end of the call number. That can be easier to read a year than to read and recognize a string of numbers and letters.

Photo of a row of books with one selected

If you cannot find the book you want, please ask the Circulation Desk on the first floor, or you can contact our Chat Service on the Marx Library Homepage.

 

OneSearch

OneSearch is a search feature on the Marx Library homepage. OneSearch allows you to search the Library catalog (SOUTHcat) and multiple e-book collections we pay to access.

  • Use the Suggested search terms box to search the catalog
  • Use search punctuation tricks:
    • Quotation marks hold phrases together ("british empire")
    • Question marks truncate words.? (brit? would give you search results that include britain or british or brittany)
  • Use the catalog's vocabulary (subject terms) in its item descriptions:
    • A book might have the subject term, "Great Britain --Emigration and immigration." or "United States --Emigration and immigration --History --19th century."  Click on this subject term to find more records that are tagged with this same subject.
  • Find physical books in the Library.
    • Use the book's call number to locate it on the shelves. The first letter of the call number corresponds with the letter on the end of the line of shelves.
    • Books are positioned near each other when they have the same major subject! Browse the shelves around a book you like to find similar books.

You can filter your search results in OneSearch under the Source type drop-down menu to only show books and/or e-books. 

Screenshot of search results in OneSearch filtered to only show books and e-books.

Subscription E-Books

The USA Libraries subscribe to several e-book collections. Some of these collections focus on a specific discipline.