Self-Guided Library Tour
 

First, look at the Library Map.
 

The Reference Desk is directly ahead of you when you enter the Library. 
Librarians staff the desk to provide you with expert research assistance. 
Take advantage of help from these professional researchers. 

How To Look-Up Books

Use the computers to access OPAL, the Library Catalog.

OPAL tells you what books we own & where they are.

You can search our 100,000 items,
1,000,000 books in all 20 OPAL Libraries,
or the 9,000,000 books in OhioLINK's 80 Ohio Libraries!

Books we don't own can be sent to you via inter-library loan.
 

Requesting Books
from OPAL and OhioLINK

        Look at the instructions for Inter-Library Loans.

You can place the request yourself from any computer in the library,
the computer lab or the dorm.
If the book is available, it will be delivered to Watson Library usually in 2-3 workdays. 

Find Your Book on the Shelf

Most colleges & universities use Library of Congress call numbers.

A typical call number is:

  GV
  863
  .A1
  S5
  1989

Books are on the second floor.

If the books you are looking for are not shelved on the second floor,
there will be an indication before the call number.

Reference—These books do not leave the library. They contain “the tip of the iceberg”,
and are a good place to begin any research project.

Quaker—The Special Collections Department.

Juvenile—This collection of children's books is used mostly by education students.

AV (Audio-Visual)— Videotapes, cassette tapes, and CD’s located in the Media Center.
These titles can be located in OPAL.

Curriculum Lab—Textbooks, lesson plans and teacher’s guides for grades K-12 located between the Juvenile collection and Government Documents and used by education majors.

Government Documents—Located on the specially marked shelves.  Government Documents use a numbering system all their own.  GP3.2:EC7 is a government documents number. Some government documents are on microfiche.  Ask for assistance if you need it.

Peace Resource Center—The Peace Resource Center at 51 College Street has a collection of materials about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as books on nuclear war, peace making, and conflict resolution.  The books are included in OPAL.
 
 

Reserves

Items on reserve are listed in OPAL.

When faculty members want everyone in a class to read the same thing,
these materials are put on reserve and kept on shelves behind the circulation desk.
Reserve books and articles circulate for a short period of time.
Fines for overdue reserve materials are very high.

A list of items on reserve is kept at the circulation desk.
 

Newspapers
 

Watson Library subscribes to a number of newspapers,
ranging in size from The Wilmington News Journal
to The New York Times.

The most recent issue is usually kept in the newspaper area.

All newspapers are kept for at least 2 months.

The New York Times is kept until the microfilm is received.

Finding Journal Articles

Use any computer to access OhioLINK’s 100 journal databases. 

If the article you want is not immediately available
in full-text in the database,
you must check in OPAL to see if the library subscribes to the magazine.

Watson Library subscribes to almost 200 journals.
This year's issues are shelved alphabetically by title in the current periodicals section.
Previous year’s issues are shelved alphabetically by title in the bound periodicals section.
Some are on microfilm or microfiche.

Journals may not be checked out.
They must be used in the library or photocopied.
Two photocopiers are located on the first floor.
Special machines are available for reading and copying microfilm and microfiche.

Microforms (Film / Fiche) 

Microfilm (on a spool, in a box) and microfiche (flat ‘cards’ in sleeves) are located in the area immediately outside the entrance to the Media Center.