Tutorial Links:

 

Library Research Tutorial

William Hessel Library

 

What is NetLibrary?

Currently, the NetLibrary database contains over 24,000 eBooks. eBooks are copyrighted, published books, available to read in electronic format. NetLibrary can be searched 24/7 and is available to all LMC students and staff from all campuses as well as remote access once an account has been created. The eBooks in netLibrary are also added to and searchable in the Library's Online Catalog, Online Catalog .

Creating an Account.

If you wish to access NetLibrary outside of the library, create bookmarks, or save notes, you will need to create a NetLibrary user account while on one of the LMC campuses using an Internet computer.. When you select the Library Catalogs/Books link at the Library's home page, you will see the NetLibrary logo:

Click on "create an account." Fill out the information and click submit.. Username and password can be anything you choose. Some students use their assigned college student ID number for their password. Just make sure you remember your username and password.

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Basic Search.

This is what the basic search screen looks like:

Basic search lets you quickly find relevant eContent. First enter your search term. Then select one of these fields: keyword, title, author, or full-text. Click search.

Below is information explaining the various fields:

  • The Keyword field searches for your terms in the title, author, Library of Congress subject heading, publisher and ISBN fields. You may enter single terms (example: programming) or multiple terms that may be found in the same or different fields (example: pride prejudice or midsummer Shakespeare).
  • The Title field searches all titles for the terms you entered. You may enter the exact title (example: A Tale of Two Cities) or any portion of the title in any order (example: Huckleberry adventures). It is not necessary to enter beginning articles in the title (the, a, an, etc.)
  • The Author field searches all authors for the name(s) you entered. You may enter the name in any order, with or without punctuation, and capitalization is not necessary (example: Twain, Mark or mark twain or Twain Mark).
  • The Full Text field searches for your terms in every word of every eBook. Use this field to search for words that may appear in the text of an eBook but not in the title or other fields or to search for text you remember from an eBook. When using this search field, be as specific as possible. You may also use quotation marks to search for full text phrases. For example, you may perform a full text search for "remote authentication" to retrieve all eBooks that contain that exact phrase.
  • The Subject Field allows for subject searching. The Library of Congress assigns subject headings to published materials; therefore, a search entered in the subject field searches Library of Congress Subject Headings. You may enter a single term (example: computer) or multiple terms (example: "civil war history"). NOTE: If you receive no search results, change your subject search to keyword. It may be that the word(s) you entered as a subject search are not assigned subject head ings.

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Advanced Search.

Construct more complicated searches using multiple fields ( Title, Author, Full-Text, Keyword, Publisher, Subject, and ISBN), Boolean operators, and limits such as: publication year, eContent language, format. You can combine search limits to expand your search results.

Below is a Boolean subject search for "civil war" AND history with a limit search to years published from 2000-2006:

Sample search results below. Note that there are 60 titles as a result of this search.:

Boolean and Other Search Techniques:

You may use the Boolean Operators below to create a more detailed search. Boolean operators (AND, OR, NEAR) specify which terms you want your search results to include or exclude. You must enter Boolean operators all in capital letters when entering a search query

Boolean

AND returns results that include both terms (example: history AND European).
OR returns results that include either term (example: heart OR cardiac).
NOT returns results that include the first term and not the second term (example: nursing NOT home).

Other Search Methods

Double quotes " " may be used to indicate phrases (example: "civil rights")
Single Asterisk * may be used for wildcarding (example: cook* searches for cook, cooks, cooking, cookery, cookbook, etc.
Double Asterisk ** may be used to search for all forms of a word (example: drive** searches for drive, drove, driving, driven, etc.)

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Seeing the Basic Search Results with eBook Details:

Here is a demonstration of a basic search and the results. You are looking for information on child safety. Since you are not sure if this is a correct subject heading, you select keyword search. Remember, if there is a book in netLibrary with the phrase "child safety" this type of search will look for this search combination in the following fields: title, author, Library of Congress subject heading, publisher and ISBN fields. (It will not search the full-text.)

Surround the phrase you are looking for in quotes (" "). This way, the words will be searched side-by-side. Type it in as: "child safety"

Here is a retrieved title from the search:

Clicking on "Show Details" brings up the eBook Details record:

The eBook Details provide information about the place of publication which is Indianapolis, Indiana. The publisher is Alpha Books, with a publication date of 2000. Note the subject headings that the Library of Congress has assigned to this book. Now that you know the subject headings used, a search could be done in the Advanced Search screen under subject heading using any of the subject headings provided. You can also click on the subject heading links provided for this record. Related books on safety or accidents would be searched.

The eBook details record above, includes the link, View this eBook. Click that link to open up the book as shown below:

Note that the table of contents links are on the left side of the screen, with the text to your right. There is a next page tab, so you can page through the book. And what about printing? You can print, but make sure you click on the text side before clicking the print icon. (So you don't print the Table of Contents.)

A dictionary tab is available above the table of contents. While reading the text, you can double click on a word and then choose to look up the word in the dictionary.

 

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All Copies in Use Statement

If all the copies are in use, it means that other users are viewing all the copies the Hessel Library owns of a particular title. You will be given the option to view the Table of Contents for the title and you may choose to be notified by email when a copy of the title becomes available for viewing.

If your instructor has assignments about NetLibrary, go to: Blackboard or practice on NetLibrary.