DKS: First Year Experience (Salem & East Liverpool Campuses): Finding Books

1. Search the KentLINK catalog for books and other materials owned by University Libraries
2. Search the OhioLINK catalog to find additional titles available from the libraries of Ohio's colleges and universities.
3. Search the SearchOhio catalog for additional titles available from Ohio Public Libraries
4. Still need more?  Ask the library staff for assistance or check Worldcat, or Google Books. 

KentLINK is Kent State University's online library catalog. It provides information about books, periodicals, government documents, audiovisual materials, and computer and online resources held by libraries at Kent's nine campuses.   

Use the OhioLINK catalog to search for and borrow books not available at Kent. The OhioLINK Library Catalog contains 11.5 million unique titles from its 89 member libraries, two public libraries and the Center for Research Libraries. 

OhioLINK, is a consortium of 89 Ohio college and university libraries and the State Library, that work together to provide Ohio students, faculty and researchers with the information they need for teaching and research.

Use the <Request item> button to request books not held at your local (preferred) campus Library.  Books will be delivered by courier in 2-4 working days. 

Begin by searching KentLINK.  It includes all the resources (books, journals, videos and more) owned by the 9 Kent State University libraries. 

Search by keyword, title, subject or author.  Use the online request process to have materials delivered to your home campus. Review your search results list  and click on items of interest for more information.

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Most academic libraries, including Kent State University, use Library of Congress call numbers to keep materials on the same subject together on the shelves. These call numbers, found on the spine of the book, serve as the "address" for the book on the shelf.  They use a combination of letters, numbers, and decimal numbers.   

To find an item on the library shelves, search the catalog to identify the location, call number and status of the item you want. 

How to Read a Library of Congress Call Number is a short video from the University of Arkansas Library which explains how to read a call number.

Finding Books on the Shelf is an online tutorial that covers identifying the call number, status and location of items in KentLINK. part of the module is specific to the Kent campus library (such as the library building guide).

Academic libraries use Library of Congress call numbers to organize materials.  These call numbers, found on the spine of the item, serve as the "address" for the book on the shelf.  Call numbers keep materials on same or similar topics grouped together.  Library of Congress call numbers use a combination of letters and numbers to identify an item. 

Here is the meaning of the number:

HQ        > H is for Social Sciences, HQ is family, marriage, woman

792       > indicates children

.C3P76  > this line may represent a more specific topic, the author's last name, or the title

2000     > year of publication

Here is how to find the call number on the shelf:

HQ        > Find the HQ section in the library. Start with H, then HA, HB... 

792        > This is a whole number, follow the numbers in sequence to locate it.

.C3P76  >  Look "alphabetically" and "numerically" to locate

2000      > Materials will be in chronological order, find the year

Also remember: The Library staff can help you to locate materials!

For more information and help with searching, try these online skill modules.

1. Basic Search Strategies:  Introduces basic search strategies that you can use to right size your topic, select appropriate keywords, and combine search terms effectively in online library catalogs and research databases.
2. University Library Tutorials:  A complete listing of all current library tutorials.  Topics include an introduction to University Libraries, using KentLINK and OhioLINK, evaluating information on the Web, and utilizing Discovery@KentState. 

1. Identify the key concepts related to your topic.
2. Combine key concepts using  Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT. Follow this link to learn more about Boolean searching.
3. Put quotes around short phrases that represent a single concept-- e.g."body image."
4. Use truncation to search for words with the same root-- e.g. librar* could produce results for library, libraries, librarian, etc.
5. Evaluate search results to identify new search terms.
6. Refine your search.
7. Perform new searches. 

Students, Faculty, and Staff
Faculty, students and staff automatically have borrowing privileges. Borrowing policies vary by patron status. Most books go out to undergraduates for 21 days and may be renewed up to 6 times if no other patron has requested them.  Periodicals and audiovisuals circulate for 7 days,

Visitors and Community Members
Community members 16 years of age or older may become Community Borrowers by requesting borrowing privileges at the Circulation Desk.