How to Get Books

This summer, the catalog, Summit & WorldCat merged to form WorldCat Local. Now you can search Reed's collection, local libraries (via Summit), & libraries all over the world (via WorldCat) all at once. You can even check your account & renew Reed items from "My Account".

Although the default search is Keyword, more specific searches can be conducted using the Advanced Search. The advanced search option allows you to search using everything you know about the item: Title, author, subject, keyword, etc. to give you more specific results. You may also limit your results by language, format, year, and where the item is located.

The search results screen shows what your search terms were, allows sorting by location, author, or date, and shows you were each item is located.

• Held by Reed Library: make note of the call no. and get it from our shelves.
  
  
• Held by Summit Libraries: the item is available from summit, use the link to request via Summit.
  
  
• Held by WorldCat Libraries: no local libraries have it, so request via the Interlibrary loan (ILL) option.

You can refine your results by format (books, videos, etc) and by language, year, or broad Topic. This will really help with focusing your search.

You won't always use WorldCat Local, though. Locate Reserves either from the Reserves button on the library web page or from the Reed-only catalog. You can also use the Reed-Only to see if an item is on order.

How To Get Articles

Once you have used a database or other means to identify appropriate articles on your topic, you must then determine if you can obtain access to the articles via the Reed College Library, or if you must use Interlibrary Loan.

Although most of the journals are listed in the library catalog, the Print & Electronic Journals list also includes thousands of journals we get as part of fulltext databases and journal collections that might not be in the catalog.

To use the list, select Print & E-Journals under Resources on the library web page.

Enter the journal title into the search box.

Once you have entered the journal title you are looking for, you will see Reed’s holdings (print and electronic) for the journal:

You can then use the links to view the journal online or the library catalog record:

Some databases will allow you to link to the catalog to check holdings directly. Others will indicate in the citation whether or not the library subscribes to a journal. In this case, it is still a good idea to check the journal title list directly.

If you aren't sure where something is located, check a library map, or ask at the reference desk.

Interlibrary Loan

If the article is not available from the Reed Library, your next step is to use Interlibrary loan (ILL). Some databases allow you to request an ILL directly from the database, but for some you will need to use Illiad, our new ILL system.

About 90% of the articles ILL receives are in electronic format. When an electronic copy of an article you requested arrives, you will receive an email notification with instructions for accessing the article online. If the article is sent in paper form, you will receive it via campus mail.

Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to use ILL as it could take anywhere from a few days to several weeks to receive your request.

If you need any assistance, please ask the Science Librarian, or another librarian.

Maintained by: Linda Maddux, Science Librarian & Pat McDougal, Chemistry Professor