Finding Books in the Library Catalog

The main search box on the Library home page will retrieve material from several different sources: the CU Library catalog, article databases, and library web sites. Clicking on a link below the search box (Catalog, etc.) will limit your searches to that particular source.

The Cornell Library Catalog includes the holdings of all Ithaca campus libraries, in addition to those of the Geneva Experiment Station. The catalog contains records for books, computer files, government documents, manuscripts and archives, maps, musical scores, periodicals, serials, sound recordings, and visual materials.

To search only the Library catalog, click on the catalog link.

 

The "All Fields" search will retrieve matches for your search terms wherever they appear in the description of an item, but you may use the pulldown menu to the right of the search box to limit to title, author, subject, publisher, or call number.

The Cornell University Library uses Library of Congress Subject Headings as the standard for subject searching.  Limit your search to Subject to retrieve items that contain your terms as part of their LC heading:

 

If you find one book relevant to your subject, you can identify others by clicking on the subject heading in the record for that book:

Clicking on the last facet of the subject heading will retrieve additional books about the philosophy of place.


Search strategies for your topic

As you read through background sources note names, places, and events that can help you with your search. 

For example:

Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Mexico)

EZLN

Subcomandante Marcos

Zapatis* (asterisk will truncate word and help you get results for Zapatista and Zapatismo)

Finding Books in Olin

Note: Pay attention to the call numbers and note whether the material is shelved in the regular, oversized (+), or double oversized (++) sections.

Regular Size Books in Olin Library

Olin/Uris Library bookstacks maps