Some books might be monographs. Monographs are academic books written as research products by experts. Other books might be more appropriately considered primary resources. These primary resource books could be first-hand accounts or collections of first-hand accounts (with an editor). They may also be called "readings."
For more help with telling primary vs secondary resources, please view the Primary and Secondary Resources page in this LibGuide.
There are three major pathways to find books:
To find a physical book in almost any university's library, you will need the book's Library of Congress call number. The call number tells you where the book is positioned in the library.
When you search in South's OneSearch, and find an interesting book, you can look at the attached record to see if the book is available and what the Call number is.
The call number starts with F. Our bookshelves are labeled with what letter and range of numbers are contained on that row of shelves.
When you find one book that fits your research interests, you can also browse for other physical books in that same area. They will have the same or similar topics!
Some e-books are free to access. These books may have been created as an e-books. Other books may have been digitized, especially older books that are now under the public domain. Evaluate the quality of the books you find before using them.
Monographs are scholarly works. You can evaluate the quality of a scholarly work to check that is appropriate for your research. Every monograph should have: an expert author, a scholarly publisher, and proof that the book is built on research. Monographs may or may not have book reviews, but they can be helpful to understand a monograph's contents and quality.