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Research Guides

Subject Guide: English & Literature

Finding Books

Look here for books, print journals, and reserves.

Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service by which Drew students, faculty and staff can submit requests to borrow materials not held by the Drew Libraries.  Users can request journal articles, books and book chapters. 

  • To submit an ILL request, please go to the ILLiad login screen (first time users are required to fill out  a brief registration form).
  • Before submitting a request, please check the Drew Library Catalog for books or Journal List to be sure that the material is not available here. Ask a librarian for help if you're not sure.
  • You may also submit an ILL request directly through Worldcat and many of our other electronic databases. Look for the link that says “Request an Interlibrary Loan” under Find it @Drew.
  • ILL can usually obtain items without a fee, but Overdue and Late Pickup fines are in effect.

Note: Books may take up to 2 weeks to arrive. Articles may arrive more quickly (sometimes the same day!) but please allow at least 5 business days for arrival. Average turnaround time for articles is 2.4 days; for books, 8 days) 

Use  Worldcat to search for books at other libraries across the U.S.  Items that Drew Library owns will appear with a green highlight.

Using the Library Catalog

The Library catalog includes our books, special collections, government documents, and many other materials. 

Basic Searching

Once you're in the catalog, you can combine terms in the basic Subject Search
Search by keyword, or limit to title, author or subject using the drop down menus. 

Search tips:

  • Use quotation marks around phrases: "Civil war," "social justice," "economic growth"
  • The Drop-down menus next to the keywords boxes allow you to limit your search to author, title, etc.
  • Use the pub year boxes to limit to items published within a certain time period.
  • use the drop down menus to limit searches, such as limiting to language-- items in English--, or location-- such as books on the library shelves that you may check out.

Entries in the catalog

  • Display the title, author, publication information for the item
  • Show the part of the library or collection and the call number for the item *
  • * if there are multiple copies in different collections, you may have to click on the title to see the list
  • Link to the electronic version of an item, if there is one.
  • Have a check box so you can select them to add to your kept list (be sure to choose "add selected items to kept list" and then print/email them before starting a new search
  • Show if the book is checked out, and give you an opportunity to recall it.

Advanced catalog search (part 1)

You can also use advanced search (link in the center of the search box) to find lists titles, author names, subject headings that   include, or begin with specific terms:

Searching for subject headings containing women and history:

Advanced catalog search (part 2)

Searching for titles beginning with Hamlet (note that left to right is checked).
Clicking on the subject, title, etc. that is displayed brings up all the related items.
 

Books in Other Libraries

The best way to identify titles that Drew does not own is to check WorldCat, the combined catalog of 10,000 libraries, including the Library of Congress (the library of record for the United States)

Questions? Need Help? Email reference@drew.edu

Drew University Library, http://www.drew.edu/library