Geography Research Guide: Finding Books & Gov Docs

The MSU Libraries have several million books (including e-books) and government documents from local, state, federal and international governments. To find a publication, begin at the library home page and search for a title or subject.  Such as:  urban sustainability

In the "Books & Media" section of the results, click "See More" to create a more focused search.

Use the limiters in the left column to focus the search results.  You may also type new additional words into the search box at the top of the page.

Looking at an individual record of the book will tell us if it is an Ebook or location information if it is a physical paper book

The image above shows a catalog record for a book owned by MSU Libraries.  By looking at this record, we can see:  

• MSU Libraries owns a copy of the book
• The location is in the Main Library
• Most books on this subject are in the Main Library basement, however this one is located in the Faculty Book Collection near the Starbucks
• If the book were checked out, it would say so. You could then request another copy using Interlibrary Loan (at no extra charge to you).

The name of a publisher appears in every book's catalog record.  The publisher name can be searched through the general catalog search.  Therefore you may find books published by a university press by keyword searching your topic with the phrase 'university press'.

Example: sustainability and university press

OR

You could limit to univeristy presses using the checkboxes on the left side of the results screen