FindIt@Bham

To find printed books, ebooks, 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;
• classmark.

The 'Using FindIt@Bham to search for books' video tutorial outlines how to search for books effectively:

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, we recommend selecting Library Catalogue from the second drop-down menu next to the search box and select the Search button :

This search finds both printed and electronic books. You can use the buttons below the search box to refine the results further. If you are interested in only print books, select the Print Books button. If you are interested in only electronic books, select the eBooks button. For example, to look up whether Human Resource Management (edited by Julie Beardwell and Amanda Thompson) is available in print, you would select the Print Books button:

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

If you are not already signed in with your University username and password, you will be prompted to do so. Once you have signed in, you will be shown:

• A list of copies of the book.
• Whether the book is available for loan.
• The classmark where the book is located.

If a book is located on the open shelves of the Main Library, select Get It! Yhis 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, and you are logged in with your University username and password, you will see two options:

• Request - to ask for the book to be fetched for you.
• Digitisation - to ask for a chapter or section of the book to be scanned for you (within copyright limits).

If it is an electronic book, it will have a link to View Online.

FindIt@Bham also has an Advanced Search option, which allows you to pre-set limits on your search by, e.g.:

• author’s name; 
• title;
• material type;
• date of publication.

Filters 

If you have a lot of results from your search, a Tweak my results column will appear on the left hand side. This will allow you to narrow down your results by, e.g.:

• resource type;
• date of publication;
• subject;
• library site.

Watch the 'Improve your FindIt@Bham results using filters' video to learn more about this functionality:

Extending your search

Once you find a title which looks useful, you can extend your search for books on the subject by selecting the Details of the book. Then either:

• Follow one of the links next to Subjects. This will find other books that have the same subject heading.
• Use the Browse Similar feature at the bottom of the page. This will show you other books within the same classmark.