How to Find and Check Out Books at The University of Alabama Libraries

This video demonstrates how to find a book using Scout and the Libraries Catalog, how to physically locate the book in the library, and how to check it out.

Transcript:
Hi! My name is James, and I’m a librarian at the University of Alabama.

Today we’re going to walk through the process of finding a book in one of our libraries

You can search for books in Scout or the library catalog.

Today, we will be using Scout.

Here in the Basic Search, you can search by keyword, title, or author.

If there is a specific book you want, change the dropdown to Title, and type the title of the book in quotes.

If you are looking for a book on a topic, go ahead and type the topic in the box with a Keyword search.

Let’s go ahead and search for something interesting, like “deception”

After your search results come up, go to the limiters to the left of the results and select “Print Books.”

This will return results that are physical books in our libraries.

Other limiters that may be useful are the Location limiter, which limits results to a specific physical location, and the Language limiter, which can help you locate non-English works in our collection.

After you find a book you want, there are three pieces of information you’ll need to locate it: availability, location, and call number.

The availability will tell you if the item is currently available for checkout.

If a book you need is checked out, or we don’t have the title you need, you can always use our interlibrary loan service.

If the book is Available, look at the location.

This will tell you which library or part of the library the book is located in.

This book is located in Gorgas library.

Next, you will want to note the call number.

This tells you where exactly the book is.

In Scout, you can text the call number to yourself.

Once you have the call number, you will need to figure out where in the library it is.

Different libraries have different locations for their books.

Each library will have a guide to where call number ranges are located, and you can always ask for assistance at an information or circulation desk.

Next, go to the floor where your book is located.

There will be a map that will show the layout of call numbers by shelf on that floor, and you can find where the book will be located.

Based on the floor map, go to the area where the shelf should be and look at the call number ranges on the end of each shelf.

This will guide you to the right range of shelves.

Then, look along the books on the shelf until you find the book you chose.

Books are arranged by subject, so it’s likely you will find other books that are relevant to your research.

When you are finished selecting books, you can check them out at the circulation desk of the library you’re using, or you can use a self-check-out machine.