Books are helpful when:
Books may not be as helpful when:
The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science by 
Pavlov's Dogs and Schrödinger's Cat by 
Statistics for Biomedical Engineers and Scientists by
If you want to find out which books our library owns, you would check the SMC Library catalog, which lists the books and other materials that the library owns. Select the link: "Search Library Resource," or type your search into OneFile.
You may look for books in the catalog by keyword, or by author, title, or subject. If you want to see if the library owns a particular book, then you would search for the book in the catalog by keyword, or by either the title or the author.
If you are looking for information on a topic and do not have a specific book in mind, you would search the catalog by subject.
Here are some examples of subject terms to use when searching the library catalog for Life Sciences:
The library catalog gives you the information you will need to locate the book. On the example record below, there is a section titled Holdings. The information in this section includes the call number, the number of copies, which location within the library the book is shelved, and whether or not the book is checked out.
Call numbers are similar to a house address. It tells us where the book is shelved on the book shelves (also called “stacks.”) Each book in the library has a unique call number, so it is important to write down the entire number. Most college libraries use the Library of Congress call number system, which consists of letters and numbers.
The nice thing about call numbers is that they group books on similar topics together, so when you go to the book stacks, you may find other books on your topic nearby.
