Books are often the first place to look for information on a topic. They tend to provide more complete coverage of a subject than you might find in an article or on a web site. If there is a weakness to using books, it is that they are not as up-to-date as articles or the Web.

The library catalog (computer version of the old card catalog) is the first place to look for books.

In this chapter you will:

• Learn how to acess the online catalog
• Learn the difference between keyword and subject searching
• Learn how to combine terms and use truncation ("wild cards") in a keyword search
• Learn how to display book locations and call numbers
• Learn how distance education students can acquire materials from the library

Next: Accessing and Searching the Library Catalog