Find BOOKS owned by the EMU library

Library Catalog: http://portal.emich.edu/

voyager

Find BOOKS beyond EMU

The Michigan eLibrary Catalog, MeLCat, is a catalog of the book, audio, and video holdings of about 275 Michigan libraries. If you've searched the EMU Library catalog and found that an item is either not owned or is checked out to another user, you can search MeLCat. If you find the item in MeLCat, and it is marked as available for loan, you can request that it be sent to the EMU Library for loan to you.

Perhaps just as interesting, if your local public library participates in MeLCat, and if you have (or obtain) a library card from that library, you can: 1) choose your local public library (instead of EMU) on the MeLCat login screen, and, 2) enter your public library card number (instead of your EMU E-number) on the MeLCat login screen. If you login to MeLCat with your public library account, MeLCat will deliver your requested material to your local public library (and not to the EMU Library.)

Go to MeLCat or see more about it.


WorldCat (via FirstSearch) lists the book holdings not only of EMU, but also of the U.S. Library of Congress as well as about 10,000 other institutions, including academic and public libraries.

  • The green-background phrase above, Eastern Michigan University Library, is a visual cue that the EMU Library owns the book. Click the link below that phrase, Search the catalog at EMU Bruce T. Halle Library, to dispay the catalog record for the book, including its location and circulation status
  • In the image below, the absence of the green-background phrase Eastern Michigan University Library (seen above), is a visual cue that the EMU Library probably does NOT own the book.

    Click the link Libraries worldwide that own item to see what libraries in our region own the book.
  • If you are a library card holder at one of the above libraries, e.g. Ann Arbor District Library or Canton Public Library, the fastest way to get the book is to go there and borrow the book.
  • If you are not a library card holder at one of the above libraries, you can use one of two services to request that the EMU Library borrow the book for you and loan it to you from our library.
    • Using MeLCat, a catalog of the holdings of about 140 Michigan libraries, is the fastest way to request that a book held by one of those libraries is delivered to EMU for your use.
    • Using Illiad, our traditional Interlibary Loan service, while a little slower to deliver items than MeLCat, can deliver to the EMU Library many books that are not owned by the MeLCat libraries.

Find a specific (known) PERIODICAL (Journal, Magazine, Neswpaper)
OR
a specific (known) PERIODICAL ARTICLE

  • Go to Library Home Page: http://www.emich.edu/halle/
  • Type the Periodical Name in the Periodicals Locator Quick Search box
    and click the 'Go' button
  • The results display:
    Periodicals Locator Results
    • This reveals: 1) that articles from 1999 to date are available in digital full-text format in two EMU Library subscription databases, Academic OneFile and General OneFile; and 2) that the EMU Library might have earlier years of the journal available in a physical format (print or microform) in the library building.
    • When you click the underlined journal title, a FindText+ menu opens that displays panels to connect to both electronic full text as well as the library catalog. Clicking the GO button following the Academic OneFile Electronic Full Text panel...
      Periodicals Locator FindText menu
    • ...brings up a description of the journal as well as a menu which allows you to browse to the year, and then the issue you want.
      Academic OneFile Michigan Historical Review
    • If you click on an issue, e.g., Fall 2006, you can browse the table of contents and then click a link to bring up the text
    • What if you want to view articles published before 1999? Clicking the GO button following the EMU Library Catalog panel...
      Periodicals Locator FindText catalog
    • ...opens a window with the EMU Library catalog record for the journal, where you will see what volumes of the journal the Library owns and where the different volumes are located.

Find PERIODICAL ARTICLES about a topic (when you do not know specific articles)

Use Indexing/Abstracting Tools 


When looking at the results screen of an EMU Library database search, you want to answer the question "Which articles are available for me to read via the EMU Library?" In general, the library does NOT subscribe to all the journal article content contained in databases. There are three categories of article content availability you will encounter.

  1. The article content is available online
    For a growing collection of journals, the library is paying for online access to articles. You can read the articles on- or off-campus, and then print and/or save the content to your computer.
  2. The article content is available in the library building (print/microform)
    The library subscribes or subscribed to journals whose full-text is available in the library building, either in paper format or in microfilm format.
  3. The article content is not subscribed to by the library in either digital or physical format
    The EMU Library will obtain a copy of any article we do not subscribe to via our InterLibrary Loan service.

The FindText+ button ( findtext_ button ) or text link is a technology tool you'll see on database result pages that can assist you in determining, "Which articles are available to read via the EMU Library?" See more about FindText+.

Find ACADEMIC / SCHOLARLY material using free web search engines

While Google and Microsoft offer well-known, no-cost, web search engines, they also provide no-cost search engines that focus on identifying scholarly/academic material on the web, e.g., peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, and universities.

Keith Stanger
Bruce T. Halle Library
Eastern Michigan University
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
734.487.0020 x2136 [voice]
734.487.8861 [fax]
keith@stanger.com