Far from being old fashioned or outmoded, books are vital sources for your studies.
Books can give you an overview or working knowledge of your topic, or they can provide a depth of coverage on a specific subject that cannot be matched anywhere else.
eBooks are books that can be read online or downloaded to your computer/mobile device temporarily - just like borrowing a print book from the Library.
Here are some of the different kinds of academic books you will find in the University Library:
The easiest way to find books and ebooks is to search the Library catalogue.
Libraries use something called a Classification System to arrange books on the shelves so that titles on the same subject are shelved together. The UTAS Library uses the Library of Congress system, while most public and school libraries use the Dewey Decimal system.
All library classification systems use Call Numbers to tell you where to find a book, journal, or CD/DVD on the Library shelves.
On the screen, LC call numbers look like this: JZ 1318 .M36 2010
On the spine of a book they look like this:
JZ
1318
.M36
2010
Each call number starts with a letter code for a broad subject area, then each line narrows the focus until you have a unique number for each title. It's a bit like looking for a street address in a city - you need to know the suburb, the street, and the house number:
JZ Suburb
1318 Street
.M36 House number
2010
How to find books on the shelves (PDF 239KB) - learn how to read a call number line by line.
