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FindIt@Bham

FindIt@Bham online help

Finding Books: Simple search

To find printed books, e-books, print journals, online articles, DVDs and videos in your subject, go to FindIt@Bham and use either the Simple or the Advanced Search. Search by:

  • author
  • title
  • keyword, or
  • classmark 

It is recommended that you select 'Library Catalogue' from the drop-down menu next to the search box. 

There are two ways of finding books on FindIt@Bham:

If you know the author and title (or at least parts of the title), you can type these into the simple search box – e.g. human resource management beardwell.

If you are looking for books on a particular subject, you can type in keywords which describe it – e.g. mathematics teaching.

In both cases, if you are only interested in books, select Library Catalogue from the second drop-down menu next to the search box and click on the Search button :

This search finds both printed and electronic books.

Locating the books

If it is a printed book, click on Check for current availability:

If you are not already signed in with your University username and password, you will be invited to do so at this point.  Once you have signed in, it will show you a list of copies of the book, whether they are available for loan and the classmark at which they are located:

If a book is located in the open access part of the Main Library, there will be a link at the end of the list, Show this location in the Main Library … which will open up a floor plan to show you in which part of the building to find the book.

If it is in the Research Reserve, there will be a link to Request this item from the Research Reserve …

An electronic book will have a link to View Online …

Advanced search tips

FindIt@Bham also has an Advanced Search option, which allows you to pre-set limits on your search by such things as author’s name, title, material type (books, articles, images, websites, etc.) and date of publication:

You can also use Boolean operators when doing a keyword search to make it more specific:

  • AND eg Weber AND capitalism. This will search for all records which contain both these terms.
  • OR eg speech OR communication. This will search for records containing either of these terms. An OR search will find more hits than an AND search. It is useful if your terms are synonyms or if they refer to similar concepts.
  • PHRASE eg “group dynamics”. This will find only those records where these terms are found together, and will not find the words in any other contexts. In most databases, phrases can be indicated by quotation marks around them.
  • BRACKETS eg dyslexia AND (diagnosis OR assessment). Brackets can be used to combine any of the operators above. This will find records containing ‘dyslexia’ as well as either ‘diagnosis’ or ‘assessment’.
  • TRUNCATION eg sociolog*. This will find any records which have words beginning with this root: sociology, sociological, sociologist, etc. Truncation is indicated by an asterisk (*).

After you have done your search, if you still have too many results, there will be a Tweak my Results column appearing on the right which will allow you to narrow down your results by such criteria as resource type, date of publication, subject and classmark.

"Sticky facets" or Filters 

Once a search is performed, a set of filters becomes available on the right hand side, under 'Tweak my results'.  These may include type - such as Books, eBooks, Articles - Subject, Library Site.  You can select one or more of these filters and click on 'Apply filters' to narrow your search.  Additionally, you can then select 'Remember all filters' for these choices to be applied to any further search you do during that session.  Filters can be removed or changed as required.

Active filters chosen during FindIt search. Option to remember all filters

Extending your search

Once you find a title which looks useful, you can extend your search for books on the subject by clicking on the Details of the book and then either following one of the links next to Subjects (this will find other books that have the same subject heading) or by using the Browse Similar feature at the bottom of the page (this will show you other books with the same classmark).

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