To find books related to Communications, you will use the Library's catalog, OneSearch. At the library's homepage, OneSearch is in the middle of the screen. Choose the "Advanced Search" to the right; then choose "Books & Media (CSUF)" at the top. The example below shows searching for the keywords "Television Broadcasting."
SEARCH TIPS
There are many ways you can search for books. If you already know a particular title or author, you can use the pull-down menu, at the left, to limit to title or author. But if you just want to explore what's available, use these 2 ways to search:
Keywords: just type any word or words you want and it will display books (and their floor/shelf location) that match those words in the title or description. For example:
- television
- radio shows
- movies and war
Subject: after you do a keyword search and see books listed, find a book that is a close match to what you want. At that book's display screen, you'll see some subject terms (or tags). Once you know those terms, you can re-do your search as a SUBJECT search. Then all the other books, also on that same subject, will be displayed. To do a Subject search, pull the pull-down menu, at the left, to "Subject." Here are some examples of subject terms:
- Television Programs
- Cinematography
- Hitchcock Alfred
Video demos: For video demos/tutorials how to use OneSearch, click here:
RETRIEVING PRINT BOOKS
When you find a book on OneSearch, it will tell you the location. Books are located on either the 3rd floor north side, or the 4th-5th floors south side. These floors are self-service--you find and retrieve books yourself; there is no library staff on those floors. Books are arranged on the shelves by book numbers. These book numbers are a two-letter+number code or "call number". The two-letters stand for subjects. For example, TK 6550 is Radio. TK 6630 is Television. PN 1994 is Film (Motion Pictures). For a video demo/tutorial on call numbers, click here:
RETRIEVING E-BOOKS
The library's OneSearch catalog retrieves both print books and e-books. When you see an e-book in your search, simply click it, and it will take you to a log-in page. Your log-in is your same CSUF log-in (username & password). You can access e-books 24 hours a day. Some e-books allow you to download the entire book for offline reading later; other e-books do not allow this, and you can only read them while connected online (the difference is because different publishers have different rules).