ENG101 / 102: Professor Spencer: Finding Books

Why Books?

Books are a great way to get an overview about a major topic such as the American Civil Rights Movement, or about a major writer or historical figure.  The library has biographies of many authors as well as books surveying and analyzing their works.  Books in the NCC library are arranged by subject, so that all of the books about James Baldwin will usually be found together in one area.  Each book has a call number on the spine which acts as an address for how the book is shelved.

Use our library catalog Primo to find books by subject or title from the Primo main search page:

Primo Search Page

This search page will look for all types of sources, so to locate books in the library, choose Held by Library from the drop-down box.

For books, type in a topic, a name, or a work, and choose "Books and Media" from the drop-down box.  After clicking search, you will see any physical books, documentaries, and eBooks on your topic.

 Choose "Held by Library" to locate physical items on the shelves in the NCC library.

After selecting an item, simply write down the call number to help find the book.

Finding Book on James Baldwin in the Library

When searching for books in relation to James Baldwin, keep in mind that they can be found in two different sections in the library; on the Third Floor, in the American Literature -- African American Authors section (call numbers starting at PS3552 .A45) are novels and short stories, in addition to Biographies and books analyzing Baldwin's writings.

On the Second Floor in the African Americans -- Civil Rights section (starting at call number E185.61) are the great essay collections such as Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time.

Each book has a Title Page and a Copyright Page.

The Title page is in the front of the book:

The Copyright page should be right after the title page (or somewhere surrounding it):

The Copyright Page has important information such as the year of copyright, the edition, the publisher and the place and year of publication.  This is where you will find the information you will need to cite the book.

There are two important elements to a citation: The In-Text Citation and the accompanying Works Cited Page entry for it.  Any words, phrases, passages, that you use in your paper have to be indicated by quoting and separating those words from your own words.  This is called In-text citations because they are the parts of the book (or article or website, etc.) that you will use "in your text" - in your paper).  These can be "quoted" or paraphrased.  There is more about paraphrasing in the accompanying box on this page.

The quotation should have a parenthesis after it indicating the author's name.  Then on the last page of your paper, you will create a Works Cited page With properly formatted MLA citation starting with the author's last name.  This way, someone can read your paper and know where you got a certain quotation because you give the name of the author in parenthesis after the quote, and on the last page that author will appear in alphabetical order followed by the complete citation information (the info that is given on the copyright page of the book: author, title, publisher, and year).

Here is a sample works cited entry for a book (in MLA format):

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin, 1987.