Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization: Finding Books

• All current Texas State students and employees are eligible.
• Cards are valid for 1 long semester.
• Materials must be returned to the same library from which they were borrowed.
• You are responsible for any charges for lost or damaged materials. 
• Students that do not return items will have "holds" placed on their records. This will prevent you from registering for classes, obtaining transcripts or grades, etc.
• For questions about TexShare contact the Checkout Desk at 512.245.3681 or via email.

Use the Library Catalog to search for print resources, multimedia resources, and ebooks. The Library Catalog also provides location and availability details. The library catalog is a type of database, so you can use the same search strategies you would use in a database, including "phrase searching," Boolean operators, and truncation.

Search by ~~> Keyword

• This search looks for matches in all fields of the catalog record (title, author, description, table of contents, subject headings, etc.)
• Use Boolean operators to combine keywords and improve your search
• This is the broadest type of search, so it is often a good way to start out—you should get a good idea of how much material is available on a subject

Search by ~~> Title

• This search should be used if you know a specific book title
• Don't include leading words like "the" or "a" and leave out punctuation like ":"

Search by ~~> Author

• This search will find works by an author, editor, actor, or director
• Search by "Lastname, Firstname" 
  • Many authors have the same name, so if you are not able to find the correct one, try a partial name search like "Shakespeare, W" to see all possible name variations
• If you want books about a person but not written by them, search for their name by subject

Search by ~~>Subject

• Subject headings are standardized tags that link related items throughout the library catalog
• This type of search works well if you are browsing for a particular subject that you know or a broad term
  • If your search results are too limited, try using the same subject heading terms in a keyword search
• The library catalog uses the Library of Congress Classification system

After you've found a book in the catalog, you'll need to find it on the shelf. Each book has a Library of Congress call number that identifies where exactly it's located.

Library of Congress call numbers should be read one line at a time as follows:

Example of a complete call number, DA 36 .A55:

1. First, look at Line 1:

Books are arranged in alphabetical order, by the letters on the first line of the call number. Example: first come all the D call numbers, then all the DA call numbers, then DB, etc.

2. Next, look at Line 2:

Within the DA call numbers, books are arranged in number order. The numbers are arranged in numerical from low to high. Example:

3. Then look at Line 3:

Line 3 of the call number has a letter and a number. The letters are in alphabetical order. Then read the numbers—but BEWARE! The numbers are not whole numbers, they are DECIMAL numbers. Example: A55 is read as A .55—this is why A55 comes before A6 (A .55, A .6, A .65, etc.)