Student Orientation: Borrowing eBooks

Database - a searchable index of reliable resources like academic journals, newspapers, and magazines. Some databases focus on specific subjects and may also include e-books and multimedia.

• What if the "A to Z List" does not have the journal or magazine I am looking for? It is a lengthy list, but it does not have everything. However, there is another option! Fill out the InterLibrary Loan Form for Articles, and we will attempt to get the article for you.
• What if I cannot find the Full Text of an article? We would be happy to help you find the article you are looking for. Visit the Ask Here desk to ask for a librarian or email us.

• What types of materials can I borrow through SearchOhio and OhioLINK? You can request print materials, audiobooks, music, movies and other formats. 
• How long before I receive my requested material? Most arrive within a week, but it depends on their availability. You’ll be notified by email when they arrive.
• How do I return items? Drop them off at Hiram Library!
• Are there different rules for borrowing? Yes. Items have different loan periods, renewal limits, daily fine rates and replacement costs than the items you borrow from Hiram College Library.

Locate a particular article if you know the title of the journal it is in and discover new journals in a particular subject area.

• What if I cannot find the Full Text of an article?
  • Please fill out the InterLibrary Loan Form for Articles, and we will attempt to get the article for you.
  • Visit the Ask Here desk to ask a librarian or email us. We are happy to help!

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.

Tips:

Keyword Search Entering one or two specific words will find many results although some might be unrelated to your topic.

Subject Search Select "subject" in the drop down, then type baseball or more specialized terms, such as: planetary motion; armadillo diseases; etc.). The * at the end of a base word will find the different forms of a word, for example, use regulat* to find results with regulation, regulatory, regulators. Using "and" in between terms will ensure both words are found.

Title/Author Search Choose "Title" for specific works or "Author" for books by a particular author.

Material Type (book, eBook, etc.)
Select a material type from the dropdown to limit to a Book (physical item), eBook (digital item), musical recording, map, and more. 

Collection:
Select the Collection limiter to reduce your results to a particular part of the library, such as the film collection, juvenile collection, or government documents. Since the Government Documents collection is so large, it can sometimes overwhelm your results. Use the "All Collections Except Gov Docs" limiter to remove them from your search.

Find Books in the Juvenile Collection (2nd floor)

How it is Arranged?

The Juvenile Collection (also known as the Kids Books or the Children’s Collection) is actually four 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, although picture books and board books are separated by format.

The four collections are called:

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

The Juvenile collection 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:

Juvenile Fiction contains beginning to read, middle grade, and young adult fiction.  It is arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name.

Picture books (call number begins with PB) contains picture books and are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name.

Board books (call number begins with BB) are books with thick, cardboard pages, typically for younger children. They are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name and stored in bins below the picture books. 

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.