For many, the idea of using a book to locate information might seem old fashioned. But, the reality is that there is still a lot of information NOT available online. The library owns a wide variety of print resources on topics related to Communicationy, all of which can be found using the online catalog.
Our extensive collection of reference books provides a great starting point for your research projects, allowing you to learn about your topic, before you start searching for articles in our many databases.
When looking for books or media, you'll want to start with Search All, our all-in-one-search tool. Search All combines our Books & Media search with most of our Databases, allowing you to find articles, books, and other resources, all in one search!
Enter simple terms or concepts, rather than long phrases and questions. For example, use terms like “gender” or “free trade” rather than “gender discrimination at work/glass ceiling”. In this case, less is better… Too many terms make it harder to find resources!
Combine more than one term or concept to narrow your results, and use the different limits on the results page to narrow even more.
And, if you're off campus, be sure to Log In to make sure you can easily access the materials you find!
To find books and media that our library owns, use the Books & Media tab on our homepage, or search for everything with the Search All option.
Start with one or two keywords, adding quotation marks ("") around concepts with more than one word: for example, "middle school" or "autism spectrum disorder"... quotes are not needed for single words, such as education or science.
Narrow your results using the limits on the right side of the results page. You may see a lot of non-book items, so be sure to limit the Resource Type category to Books, if that's what you're looking for.
When you've found a book (or ebook!) that looks interesting, click the title to learn more about it, or (if it's Available), write down the location and call number and head to the shelves to get it!
If you see 'Available Online', the book or media is available online!
This is just a sampling of the many useful books you will find in the Reference Collection. You may also want to check out the Credo Reference's Academic Core, an online collection of encyclopedias in many subject areas.