FINDING BOOKS RESEARCH SKILLS During the course of your research, you will need to find books on your topic. In the tutorial below, you will learn how to find both print and electronic books (e-books) in the library. You can search for books by author, title, keyword or subject. To access go to http://www.unisa.ac.za/library, click on Find a book. Printed books Finding books using the Unisa Library s catalogue Title To select your search option, use the drop down menu and select Title Type the exact title of the book in the search box, eg. Living in hope and history: notes on our century The search result(s) will appear Click on the required title to view the full details of the book: location, shelf Use the shelf number to find the book on the shelf Location indicates in which branch of the library or in which collection the item is housed If the book is unavailable, click on Request and follow the instructions To view more results click on the Next button
Author To select your search option, use the drop down menu and select Author Type the surname before the first name in the search box, eg. for the author Stephen Clingman, type in Clingman Stephen A list of publications by the selected author will appear Click on the required title to view the full details of the book: location, shelf Use the shelf number to find the book on the shelf Location indicates in which branch of the library or in which collection the item is housed If the book is unavailable, click on Request and follow the instructions To view more results click on the Next button
Keyword Keywords use free language or exact phrases and thus can be searched for anywhere in the record. It is best to use keyword searches when you do not know the standard subject heading. Please remember that keywords can retrieve a large number of results. Examples of keywords can be global warming or diversity management etc. To select your search option, use the drop down menu and select Keyword Type your keyword(s) in the search box, eg. diversity management The search result(s) in the form of book titles will appear Click on the required title to view the full details of the book: location, shelf Use the shelf number to find the book on the shelf Location indicates in which branch of the library or in which collection the item is housed If the book is unavailable, click on Request and follow the instructions To view more results click on Next
Subject Searching for information by subject headings may assist you to find material that focuses on a particular topic. Subject headings are predetermined terms which are found in the Library of Congress Subject Headings lists. If you do not know the correct Library of Congress Subject Heading, rather perform a keyword or title search to find at least one relevant title on your topic. Use the full display of that record to find the subject heading(s) used. To select your search option, use the drop down menu and select Subject Type your topic in the search box, eg. Strategy A list of subject headings will appear Click on the required subject heading The search result(s) in the format of book titles will appear Click on the required title to view the full details of the book: location, shelf Use the shelf number to find the book on the shelf Location indicates in which branch of the library or in which collection the item is housed If the book is unavailable, click on Request and follow the instructions To view more results click on the Next button
Finding books using the South African Union Catalogue (SACat) SACat reflects the collections of libraries in Southern Africa and contains bibliographic information for books as well as journals, audio-visual items and other material. Books that are only available in other South African libraries may be borrowed on inter-library loan. Go to http://www.unisa.ac.za/library, click on e-resources, A-Z list of electronic resources, S, SACat Click on Advanced Search under Search Options in the top left-hand side of the screen Select one of the options in the drop-down menu next to the search for field, eg. keyword Type the keywords from your topic, eg. inclusive education Click on Search at the bottom of the screen You can also limit your search by language, year and material type Click on Search at the bottom of the screen How to page and view your results Your results will display as lists in sets of 10 items on each page Click on the next set number at the top or bottom of the screen to view the next set of results Click on the highlighted title to view a record in detail To return to your results list, click on Results at the top or bottom of the screen
Finding books using the Unisa Institutional Repository (UIR) The UIR is a searchable full-text database containing Unisa s research output and it includes chapters in books. To access it, go to http://www.unisa.ac.za/library, click on Institutional Repository. E-Books (Electronic books) Finding e-books using the Unisa Library s catalogue Title To select your search option, use the drop down menu and select Title Type the exact title in the search box, eg. Tradition and theology Using the drop-down menu, change View entire collection to E-books The search results will appear Click on the required title to view the full details of the e-book: location, shelf Click on the link in the Connect to box to view the electronic version of the e- book At this stage, all off-campus users will be prompted for their sign-on information before being allowed access to the full-text content of the e-book Once you have opened the e-book, you can browse its table of contents or perform in-text searching, depending on its format.
Author To select your search option, use the drop down menu and select Author Type the surname before the first name in the search box, eg. for the author Barry Smith type in Smith Barry Using the drop-down menu, change View entire collection to E-Books A list of publications by the selected author will appear Click on the required title to view the full details of the e-book: location, shelf Click on the link in the Connect to box to view the electronic version of the e- book At this stage, all off-campus users will be prompted for their sign-on information before being allowed access to the full-text content of the e-book Once you have opened the e-book, you can browse its table of contents or perform in-text searching, depending on its format.
Keyword To select your search option, use the drop down menu and select Keyword Type your keyword in the search box, eg. Leadership Using the drop-down menu, change View entire collection to E-books The search result(s) will appear with the most relevant titles displayed first Click on the required title to view the full details of the e-book: location, shelf Click on the link in the Connect to box to view the electronic version of the e- book At this stage, all off-campus users will be prompted for their sign-on information before being allowed access to the full-text content of the e-book Once you have opened the e-book, you can browse its table of contents or perform in-text searching, depending on its format
Subject To select your search option, use the drop down menu and select Subject Type your subject heading in the search box, eg. project management Using the drop-down menu, change View entire collection to E-books The search result(s) will appear Click on a subject heading to view the individual titles of the e-books Click on a title to view the full details of the e-book Click on the link provided in the Connect to box to view the electronic version of the e-book At this stage, off-campus users will be prompted for their sign-on information before being allowed access to the full-text content of the e-book Once you have opened the e-book, you can browse its table of contents or perform in-text searching, depending on its format
Finding e-books using the library s online databases You should use the library s e-book database collections to find e-books on your topic. Each database has its own specific format so it is recommended that you use the online help screens or instruction pages for each database. Remember that the library may not necessarily have access to all the titles held by the database, but this will be indicated. Go to http://www.unisa.ac.za/library, click on e-resources and e-books Select the relevant e-book collection by clicking on the database title, eg. Cambridge Books Online to open a search screen Enter the topic in the search box Limit to full-text should the database allow this Click on Search to display the list of results If a list of e-book titles is displayed, click on a title to view the Table of Contents and select the relevant chapter to view If a list of e-book chapters is displayed, open or download the chapter to view
Copying, Downloading, Printing and Saving Due to copyright restrictions, only limited printing, downloading and/or saving is allowed on many of the databases. An entire e-book may only be downloaded when the copyright has expired or has been cleared, eg. Google books. The following usually applies: Copying text can be highlighted and copied Printing either page by page or the whole chapter if in pdf format Downloading available if in pdf format e-mailing cannot e-mail individual books but some databases allow lists of titles to be e-mailed Please note that each e-book has copying and printing restrictions. Once these are reached, no further text may be copied or printed.
Finding e-books using Google Books Google Books is a service from Google which allows you to search for books, but not necessarily to access them as e-books. Google Books depends on the book s copyright status. If a book is under copyright, you can only browse the preview areas that the authors and publishers make available. You will rarely have access to the entire full-text and, unfortunately, you cannot limit your searches to full-text only. The purpose of Google Books is to assist you to discover new titles and then to advise you as to where they can be purchased (using the Buy this book link) or from which library they may be borrowed (using the find this book in a library link). In other words, it is similar to a library catalogue. Please note that e-books that are under copyright cannot be downloaded, copied or printed they may only be read electronically. If a book s copyright restrictions have expired, you can page through the whole book, download it and read it offline. It is important to remember that not all of these books are available in the Unisa Library. Go to http://www.unisa.ac.za/library, click on e-resources and e-books Select Google Books to open a search screen Click on the Advanced Book search. This will give you more search options and result in more accurate hits Enter your topic Mark the limiters, eg. language, date, etc. A list of book titles will appear Select your relevant title