Commonwealth Honors College: Getting Started With Library Research

Print materials can be good for getting overview information on a topic, finding specific terminology, and more. 

Book chapters can also be helpful and may be a good source for a specific topic!

Discovery Search is a good place to find what print materials are owned by UMass Amherst and the Five College (UMass, Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith).

Please click on the Discovery Search page on the left side bar to find out how to effectively use Discovery Search.

Please click on the link below to use Discovery Search.

The UMass Amherst Libraries use the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system to organize the books in the Libraries. The system was created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the United States, most public libraries use the Dewey Decimal System and most academic libraries use the LCC system. Each book is assigned an LC Call #.

Finding Books

• The University of Louisville has a good page explaining how to find the book on the shelf using the LC Call #. Click below to learn how to find a book when you have a call #.
• You can find the floor directories for our Libraries below to see which floor to visit for the items you have selected.

Finding Areas to Browse

You can use the classification outline site listed below to narrow down an area in the libraries to browse for titles.

• For example, books that are primarily about education topics will be in the L section of the Libraries and books that are primarily about photography or are photography books about topic can be found in the TR section.
• You can look at the site to see even further breakdowns like books primarily about Inclusive Education can be found in the LC1200-1203 section of the Libraries.

Looking for what else might be available for print materials beyond the UMass Amherst Libraries? Try WorldCat!

WorldCat is the combined catalog of most academic institutions in the United States as well as libraries across the globe. You can search in this catalog and then request items through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Using WorldCat

Use the link below to access WorldCat. You really want to use the Advanced Search! As of September 2023, there are over 548 million records in WorldCat and Advanced Search can help you narrow things down more quickly. The advanced search is the tiny icon that looks buttons on a slide to the right of the magnifying glass icon or Search button.

To get the most out of Advanced Search, use a separate line for each concept of your search and change the default field to a more specific field.

For example, if I was searching for what was available for using graphic novels for teaching, I would put graphic novels on the first search line and make sure the field is Keyword and put teaching on the second search line and change the field to Subject. This will tell the search interface that I'd like all items that have a subject of teaching AND have graphic novels in any other field.

Once you click Search, you'll go to the Results screen. In the Results screen, use the filters on the left side of the screen to look at "slices" of the results, which is especially helpful if you have hundreds or thousands or millions of results.

The most useful filters to use are:

Apostrophes (") are your friends!

For terms that have more than one word, use apostrophes. For example, if you were searching for the direct instruction method, use "direct instruction" in the field. That will search specifically for direct instruction. If you don't use the apostrophes, you will get results that include materials where direct is in the first line of the text and instruction is in the 52nd line of the text.

Asterisk (*) is another friend!

Use the asterisk to search for multiple variations of a word. For example, using comic* will return results with both comics and comic books.

Default search fields can amp up your search!

Change the default search fields. Most helpful are:

Finding a Specific Item

When looking for a specific item like a book, use the default fields of Author and Title and filter to the specific format. Otherwise, you might get book reviews or articles about it. If you know the ISBN for the item, you can also use the ISBN field to search for the item.

Power Searching

If you want to dive down a deep rabbit hole, use the link below to see WorldCat power user search tips.

Search is an iterative process ... ... ...

It may take multiple times to find items on your topic. This is absolutely normal, especially with WorldCat!

Keep track of your search!

Track how you're searching and what combinations of keywords, subject terms and fields that you've used along with how many results with each search. This is especially helpful if you need to go back to a search.

Copying URLs for items you want to share

If you find an item and you want to share it with yourself or someone else, you can use the URL you see in the browser bar.

If you're already in Discovery Search, you can use this trick to transfer your search directly to WorldCat!

On the results screen for your search in Discovery Search, look on the right side of the screen and scroll down slightly. Click on the WorldCat icon under Continue your search in: as shown below.

You can then click on the Advanced Search icon to adjust your search as needed.

Depending on what service you used to request the items, you will pick them up in different locations in the Libraries.

• If you requested the item through our catalog Discovery Search (UMass-owned and 5 College items), you can designate which library you want to go to to pick it up  [UM Du Bois (Main) Library, UM Science & Engineering Library, or UM Wadsworth (Mt. Ida) Library].
  • For Du Bois, you will pick them up at shelves to the left of the Information Desk on the entrance level of the Du Bois Library. The items will be on the shelf by your last name.
  • For both the Science & Engineering Library and Wadsworth Library, you will pick them up at the desk on the main level of the library.
• If you requested the item through Interlibrary Loan, you will pick them up at the Learning Commons Desk on the Lower Level of the Du Bois Library.

​​​​​​Delivery to Your Home Address

If you'd like to have items mailed to you, please use the Library Express service. Use the link below to see the instructions for how to have interlibrary loan items mailed to you. This includes both UMass and other libraries, including Five College libraries and interlibrary loan materials (as long as the owning library has not restricted it to use within the library only).

The Libraries will mail books to any off campus address within the United States, including those within the Pioneer Valley.