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For further help, watch our video tutorial on how to find books in the library. |
Use this box to search the Geisel Library catalog for books and other materials in the library collection.
Start with a Keyword search on terms that represent your topic of interest.
When you find a useful book, check its catalog record for Subject Headings that are pertinent to your topic. Clicking on a subject heading may lead you to further useful books.
The asterisk (*) helps you find variations of a word; for instance, searching terror* will find sources whose titles or chapter titles contain "terror", "terrorist", or "terrorism".
Here are some examples of keyword searches:
If you find a book in this database that is not owned by Geisel Library, you can request it through Interlibrary Loan by clicking on the "Request via Interlibrary Loan" link in the book's catalog record.
The best way to tell is to look at who publishes it. If it's published by a university press (e.g. Chicago, Harvard, etc.) or by several other academic presses (e.g., Blackwell, Routledge, Palgrave, Ashgate) it is scholarly. There are other presses that publish scholarly books as well, depending on the discipline. Another way to decide is to look at the book's intended audience and purpose.
Look for the Publisher's name listed in Library Catalog.
Popular books are published with the intent of making money, whereas scholarly books are published regardless of whether or not they will make money. Scholarly books are produced to contribute to knowledge, and they support the research of academics, scholars, and students.
The publishing process begins when either editors of publishing houses reach out to scholars or scholars submit manuscripts to editors. Editors make the connection with scholars, but they don't make the final decision. Instead, all scholarly books go through an extensive peer review process in which experts in the field read the manuscripts and decide if the book is reliable, credible, and worthy of being published.