Student Orientation: Research Help

Our catalog lists books, CDs, DVDs, journals (but not individual articles within journals), government documents,  and microforms.  If you are not sure how to search for materials in the catalog, see the Discovering Materials in our Catalog below.

Need to know how to find it on the shelf? Try this: Track Down Your Book .

Didn’t find anything useful? Try the OhioLINK catalog. And don’t forget the SearchOhio link on the OhioLINK catalog as a way to expand your search. 

Need to find still more? Try WorldCat and/or Google Books.

Search strategies for finding materials in our Catalog

Keyword Searching
This search looks for matching documents that contain one or more words specified by the you anywhere in the catalog. It is good for finding the largest possible return. However it can also result in materials that have nothing to do with your subject.

Subject Searching
In the library catalog, select "Subject" in the drop down box to the left of the search field, then type in the box: Baseball (or, more specialized terms, such as: planetary motion; armadillo diseases; etc.).

The "*" is a truncation symbol that will retrieve various forms of each word, for example, use regulat* to find results like regulation, regulatory, regulators. The "and" will require that both terms appear, but not necessarily in the same phrase.

Title or Author Searches
In the library catalog, choose "Title" to locate a specific work or, choose "Author" to find books written by a particular author.

Find Books in the Juvenile Collection

How it is Arranged?

The Juvenile Collection (also known as the Kids Books or the Children’s Collection) is actually two collections in one.  What they have in common is:

• They contain books for pre-K through 12.
• There is no breakdown on the shelves by age group.

The two collections are called:

Juvenile, which is the location given in the brief catalog record below:

The Juvenile collections contains non-fiction books, such a books about animals, biographies, as well as counting books and alphabet books.  It is arranged by Dewey Decimal call numbers.

Juvenile Fiction, which is the location given in the brief catalog record below:

The Juvenile Fiction contains what its name suggests, fiction.  It is arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name.

How Do I Find Juvenile Books in the Online Catalog?

There are three tricks to finding fiction books (and sometimes non-fiction books) using the catalog.  Let’s suppose you are looking for books on frogs.  Here are two ways to find juvenile books on frogs:

• Do a keyword search for frogs, but limit your search to the juvenile collection only. Your search would look something like this:

• Do a subject search for frogs and use the phrase juvenile literature (to find mostly non-fiction books) or juvenile fiction (to find fiction books)

• You may also search what the catalog calls genre/form using a keyword search.  The most common genre/form searches in the juvenile collection are for: picture books for children, board books, and stories without words.  This last one may retrieve items from the main collection or the fiction collection, so be sure to limit this search to the juvenile collection.

Go to the Database A-Z List to sort databases by subject and other categories and see full descriptions of each database. 

A library database is a searchable electronic index of published, reliable resources. Databases provide access to a wealth of useful research materials from academic journals, newspapers, and magazines. While there are some databases that are good for general research inquiries, many databases are subject specific, providing targeted information in selected areas of research. Some databases also include e-books, relevant Web resources, and various multimedia.

Library databases are different from internet sources. To access the databases provided by the Hiram College Library, you'll need to either be on campus on the Hiram College network, or you'll need to sign in when accessing from off campus.

If you know the database you're looking for, jump directly to it from the list here:

Use this search bar to look for databases by keyword:

Here is a list of the most commonly used databases in Hiram's collection:

Please Note:

You do not need to submit an interlibrary loan request to have a book from OhioLINK sent to the Hiram College Library. You can request materials on your own with your library barcode number. For help with requesting a book through OhioLINK, please contact our staff: 

Materials take 3 to 5 business days (or sometimes longer) to arrive.

You will be notified by email when your materials arrive.

Books not picked up after 10 days are automatically returned.

Requests are blocked if:

• Our copy is available;
• There are no available, circulating copies;
• You do not have borrowing privileges at the Hiram College Library.

You can check the status of your requests by checking your library account.

Further information about OhioLINK.

You do not need to submit an interlibrary loan request to have a book from SearchOhio sent to the Hiram College Library. You can request materials on your own with your library barcode number. For help with requesting a book through SearchOhio, please contact our staff: 

You will be prompted to login to the EJC when accessing from off campus. See Connecting from Off Campus for help with logging in. 

• OhioLINK Electronic Book Center 

  The OhioLINK Electronic Book Center (EBC) contains more than 125,000 e-book titles, covering numerous subjects, and includes scholarly monographs, encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference works. Most e-books are permanently owned by OhioLINK. Content is funded through a combination of member library contributions and OhioLINK central funds.

You will be prompted to login to the EBC when accessing from off campus. See Connecting from Off Campus for help with logging in.

The WorldCat Catalog

Search WorldCat if you have exhausted other options for locating the items you need (Hiram's Library Catalog, OhioLink/SearchOhio, OneSource, etc.). WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. Currently, this shared catalog contains the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories. 

If you find something in WorldCat that you want but can't find it in the Hiram College Library collection or OhioLINK you'll need to fill out an InterLibrary Loan Form to request the item.

The time required to locate and obtain these materials can vary so please be proactive in your research. When in doubt please visit the library and talk to our librarians for help.

The easiest way to locate a particular journal or magazine is to use the search box above.

What does using this search help you with?

• Locating a particular article if you know the title of the Journal it is in.
• Determining if any of our indexes contain a particular Journal.
• Discovering new journals in a particular subject area. 

What does this search NOT help you with?

• Searching for unknown articles in a particular subject.
• Locating a print or online resource we do not have access to.
• Remember articles can still be obtained by Inter Library Loan.

Some issues that you may encounter when looking for Journals & Magazines.

• If you are using the "Searchable A to Z List" you may find that many of these links will only work on campus.
  • Write down the database that you are attempting to access and locate it on the Database Full A to Z list.
  • Click on the Off Campus link below the text entry for the database/index. 
  • Login using your Barcode.
  • Search for the article title.
• What if the "Searchable A to Z List" does not have the journal or magazine that you are looking for?
  • Unfortunately while the index is extensive it is not possible to have everything. However we can still get materials that are not on this list.
  • Please fill out the InterLibrary Loan Form for Articles and we will attempt to obtain the article for you.
  • Also you can find out more Information About InterLibrary Loan.
• What if I cannot find the Full Text of an article?
  • We would be happy to help you at the Reference desk or the Circulation desk to find the article you are looking for.
  • Additionally you can find other ways of obtaining help at How Do I Get Help?

Course Guides provide resource lists specifically for your course or assignment. If you find that you have no Course Guide please contact a librarian for help finding resources for your class.

Sometimes, professors put required textbooks as well as other course materials on course reserve. These items typically have a two hour checkout period to allow lots of students access to them.

To see what materials a professor has placed on reserve, visit the Ask Here Desk or search the library catalog.

A valid Hiram ID is all that is needed to check out course reserves.