MLIS 7000 Research Guide: GIL-Find@VSU

Directions:

1. Click on Books & Journals on the library home page

2. Click on Advanced Search

3. Type your search terms in the search boxes and select any Limits you want to use

4. Click Search

Advantages

• Powerful
• Complex searches
• Use search options to refine results

Search Options: 

• Publication Date
• Format
• Language
• Start Date
• End Date
• Search Scope
• Any field can be changed to reflect Title, Author/Creator, Subject, Journal Title, Series Title, Publisher, ISBN

Physical Books at Odum Library

Directions

1. From the search results, you can see the status and location of the book.  

Example: "Available at Odum Library 3rd Floor Shelves (PN6728 .P36 V38 2016 v. 1)" 

2. Use the blue link that follows the book status for more options.  

In this example, you would click on "Odum Library 3rd Floor Shelves (PN6728 .P36 V38 2016 v.1) and other locations >"

Online Resources at Odum Library 

Directions

1. To access online materials, click on Online Access.

2. In the new window, look under View Online. You can access the online material by clicking on the blue link that follows "Full text available at".

Example: eBook Central Academic Complete - GALILEO

Physical Books from other USG Libraries

Directions

1. Visit gilfind.valdosta.edu

2. Click on the drop-down menu next to Valdosta State University and select University System of Georgia 

3. Input your search terms in the first search box and click search 

Accessing Books from University System of Georgia Institutions

To learn how visit the GIL-Express page. 

Odum Library uses the Library of Congress Classification to organize the library by subject. Each book is assigned a call number. 

Things might look a little different than the books at your public library or at a bookstore. However, there are only a few easy rules to follow and you'll be able to find any book in our library! 

The catalog entry will always tell you which floor the book is located on and that's a good place to start. Once you get to the right floor, you're going to want to start reading the call number. 

How to Read a Call Number 

• Left to Right 

In the example for Paper Girls above, to read the call number, you would start with PN and end with v.1. 

• Alphabetically 

The first part of the call number will be 1-3 letters. Read these alphabetically. 

In the example for Paper Girls above, the first part is PN.  PN would come after P, PA, PB, PC, PD, PE, etc. until you get to PN. Each row of the shelves in the library is labeled with a range. Look for those that include PN. 

• Numerically

The second part of the call number is a number that consists of one or more digits. Smaller numbers come before larger numbers. 

In the example for Paper Girls above, the second part of the call number is 6728. 

So once you are in the PN section, you will look for that second number. PN6728 would come after PN6700 and before PN6730. 

*You don't have to count every book. In fact, look ahead on the shelf and see if the numbers jump ahead closer to the number you are looking for. *

• Combine and Repeat

The third part of the call number (if there is one) is made up of a letter and a number.  Use your alphabet and number skills. The key difference with this third part is that the number is read as if it came after a decimal point. Rest assured, typically at this point, you're pretty close to finding your book. 

In the example for Paper Girls above, the third part of the call number is .P36.

Once in the PN6728 section look at that third part.

• PN6728 .P36 would come after PN6728 .M88 and PN6728 .P359.  

• PN6728 .P36 would come before PN6728 .P364 

If it helps, imagine extra zeros after this number .P36(0) vs. .P364.

Keep following this process until you find you reach the year of publication. 

• Year

In the example of Paper Girls above, 2016 is the year of publication. 

• Volume 

If there are volumes in a work (encyclopedia or comic book), the volume will be indicated with v and the corresponding number. 

In the example of Paper Girls above, this v.1 refers to volume 1. 

• Copy

If the library owns multiple copies of the same item, they will be indicated with a c. 

If this was our second copy of Paper Girls v.1., it would read: v.1. c.2.