We are glad you’re back! Research Librarians love summer, but we also really enjoy helping people discover the information and data they need for their research projects and papers. Of course, this time of year, many students want to know if the library has the books they need for class–those projects come later. The DePaul WorldCat Local search bar in the middle of library.depaul.edu is a good place to start searching. Putting at least part of the exact title of the book you are looking for in quotation marks will really focus your search. Words in quotation marks are searched for as a phrase, so if the title of the book you need is “Back to school: Why everyone deserves a second chance at education,” by Mike Rose, you can simply type in “back to school why everyone” because that phrase (complete or not) appears in the title.
The WorldCat Local search bar also supports searching by ISBN number. However, we don’t often recommend it, because ISBN numbers are unique to each edition of a book. In other words, hardcover and paperback copies of the same title will have different ISBN numbers–even though the content is the same. So, be thoughtful when searching by ISBN–you might be better off searching by title, especially if you can use an older or different version of the book you need. Of course, we won’t have every book you search (see our previous post, “Are textbooks available in the library?”) but it doesn’t hurt to check. And, if you can’t find what you need, you can always follow up with our Research Librarians and Peer Research Tutors in person at our Research Help Desks in person, by phone, instant messaging, text or email.
Once you’re ready to go with the books you need, let us know–we’re looking forward to teaching you how to find whatever you need: scholarly research articles, legislative testimony, climate data–you name it, and we’ll help you find it.