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Michigan State University

Engineering Information Resources

The purpose of this guide is to provide users with an introduction to the engineering information resources available through the MSU Libraries.

Online Catalog

What Can I Find in the Library Catalog?

Books and e-books, magazine and journal titles, newspaper titles, movies, government documents, MSU theses and dissertations, maps, music and audio recordings, music scores, and more...

The online catalog can be searched in a number of ways including by author, by title, by keyword, and by subject heading.

For example

For example, if you were interested in knowing whether or not the MSU Libraries owns any books written by Craig Gunn you could do  an Author Search, click on the down arrow next to All Fields and choose Author, then enter his name in the search box as Gunn, Craig

If you knew the title of the book you were looking for you could do a Title Search by clicking on the down arrow next to All Fields and choose Title then enter the title in the search box.  For example: Standard Handbook of Engineering Calculations

Each title in the catalog is assigned at least one subject heading based on it's content.  These headings can be used to find more items on the same topic.  It is not always obvious what subject heading(s) will be assigned to particular title.  It is often useful first do a All Fields search to find books on a your topic and then look at the subject heading(s) assigned to the useful book titles and then use them to do a Subject Search by clicking on the down arrow next to Catalog and choosing Subject to find more books on the same topic.  For example the subject heading for the  book Standard Handbook of Engineering Calculations is Engineering mathematics--Handbooks, manuals, etc.  You could use this subject heading to find more books on engineering mathematics.