Search for a Book at Butler

Many kinds of items are available to you through Butler University Libraries.  

The items are available in many formats, including:  eBooks, print books, journal and magazine articles, music CDs, DVDs, eVideos, and more.  

In this tutorial, you will learn how to search for eBooks and print books through Butler University Libraries.

The quickest way to begin searching for books is to use the search box on the home page of Butler University Libraries, which you see in the window to the right of this tutorial.   

In the box in the center of the screen, you type words that are used to search for items.  

Using the search box, you can search by author, title, subject, and keyword.

Subjects and keywords are words used to describe books and other items.  For example, the terms "American poet" and "poetry" help to describe E.E. Cummings and his works.

Let's search for works written by the poet "E.E. Cummings."

Type "E.E. Cummings" in the search box in the window to the right of this tutorial and then click the  button.

The search process may last a few moments, then the results of your search are displayed. 

Most of the results for this search are works written by E.E. Cummings, which tend to be displayed at the top of the results list.

If you look farther down the list of results, you will eventually see works written about E.E. Cummings.

At the top of the results screen, the search box reminds you of the terms that you used for the search.

Instead of returning to Butler University Libraries' home page to change your search, you can change your search by adding or deleting from the words in the box at the top of the screen.

In the search box at the top of the screen, delete "E.E. Cummings" and type the words "73 Poems."  (73 Poems is the title of a book of E.E. Cummings' poems.)

Then click the  button, which is located next to the search box.

Do you see the book 73 Poems written by E.E. Cummings in the list of search results?

So far in this tutorial, you have searched for items by author and title.

As mentioned earlier in this tutorial, you also can search for items by subject and keyword.

Delete "73 Poems" from the search box at the top of the screen and type "20th century American poetry."

Then click the  button. 

Items that match the keywords "American poetry 20th century" are now listed in the search results.

Your search for "20th century American poetry" has produced thousands of results in many formats, including:  eBooks, print books, journal and magazine articles, videos, and more.

Let's say that you are only interested in eBooks about 20th century American poetry.  You don't want print books.

On the left side of the results page, find the "Format" box.

To limit your results to only eBooks, click the "eBook" check box in the "Format" box.  (Don't forget to wait a few moments for the process to finish.)

Because you narrowed the search results to the format "eBook," the displayed search results have been updated so that only eBooks about 20th century American poetry are listed. 

Let's say that you are only interested in print books about 20th century American poetry.

Look again at the left side of your search results screen.  Click the check box for "Print book."

Now, only print books that match your search for "20th century American poetry" are listed in the results.

Look again at the left side of the results page.  Find the box titled "Library."  

The "Library" box allows you to narrow your search results to items held by chosen libraries.

Because the check box "Libraries Worldwide" is checked, print books about 20th century American poetry located at libraries throughout the world are listed in your search results.

Look for the words "Held by" in any listed search result.

"Held by" tells you which library holds that particular item.  

Items held by Butler University Libraries are displayed at the top of the list of search results.

Items held by libraries in PALNI are displayed after items held by Butler University Libraries.  (PALNI is an organization that allows Butler University Libraries and libraries at many other colleges and universities in Indiana to share items, such as books.)   

Items not held by Butler University Libraries or PALNI are displayed next in the list of search results.  These items are held by libraries throughout the world.

These items do not have "Held by" information in the search results.  The red arrow in the image below shows that no "Held by" information is available for the eBook titled The Theatre of E.E. Cummings.   

In this tutorial, you received an introduction on how to find eBooks and print books through Butler University Libraries.

If you ever need assistance with searching for an eBook or print book, please contact Butler University Libraries by email, chat, phone, or face-to-face.

Please enter your name and email address to retrieve a copy of your completed quiz.

You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas. If you are doing this for a class, you may need to enter your instructor's email address also.

What did you think of this tutorial?