Looking for a Specific Book?
Need to find a specific book? Search for the title of the book you're looking for ("quotation marks" around words search for an exact phrase) from the main search box (or Catalog link). See the tutorial on finding a book!
Looking for Books on a Topic?
Looking for books on a topic? See this tutorial on searching the library catalog to see how to do a very general keyword search for your subject in the library catalog, find a relevant book, check under Availability to see how you can access it in print (look for the library, call number [book location] and availability) or online (look for the full text link), and find the subject headings.
Searching the Library Catalog
Search the one of the catalogs above to find periodical titles,books, and other material owned by Cornell University Libraries and write down the CALL NUMBER and LOCATION of the material.
First do a very general keyword search for your subject.
swimsuit? (to find swimsuit or swimsuits)
When you find anything useful (like Making waves : swimsuits and the undressing of America)
look at the Subjects:
Bathing suits --History.
Advertising --Clothing and dress --Pictorial works.
Fashion --United States --History --20th century --Pictorial works.
Advertising --Fashion --20th century --Pictorial works.
You'll find everything about that particular subject listed here and you can also re-search using the subject headings.
You can also use the limits to find books in certain date ranges or languages.
Note: Many of these will be secondary sources. Though you can't use secondary sources in your paper they can be useful for pinpointing primary sources to investigate by looking at the references and bibliographies.
Getting materials for the Annex
What does "Request this material from the Annex mean?"
Cornell Libraries has an on-campus storage facility where we store older, less circulated material. If the material you need says "Library Annex," don't panic!
Just click on "Request Item" (on the right, next to "Get it in the Library" heading) and fill out any additional information. The material will be delivered to the library of your chosing, and you'll receive an e-mail when it has been delivered. This service usually takes 24-48 hours.