How to Find a Book in the Library Catalog
Search & Discover provides sweeping access to books, ebooks, articles, movies, music, and more through a user-driven platform supporting your research interests. You can use Search & Discover without signing in. However, to access e-books, you will need to sign in when prompted.
There are two main ways to use Search & Discover.
Milne Search allows you to search simultaneously for books, ebooks, articles, movies, music, and more. You may use keywords, titles, authors, or phrases. Refine your results using the choices on the left. For example, if you want to discover the newest results then select Sort by. Explore Resource Type, also on the left, to get a sense of the various materials available to you.
Library Catalog is commonly used to search the physical collections of the James M. Milne Library, including ebooks, by an author’s name or a book’s title. You may also use keywords to search the library catalog, which contains the table of contents for many records. Subject headings are included in keyword searching and are assigned to all library catalog holdings.
While Milne Search and Library Catalog are two of the main searching functions in Search & Discover, there are others available for use. Child Collection, Course Reserves, EMC Media, NY State Collection, Reference, Special Collections (SCC), SUNY Catalog, and Young Adult (YA) are all options to choose from. These collections can be searched exclusively by selecting them in the top menu. For example, selecting Child Collection will include results only from that collection.
Most physical (print) materials can be checked out for the whole semester at the Circulation Desk on the first floor. All you need is your ID! A few collections, such as Special Collections and the Reference Collection, do not circulate but can be used in the Library.
Check out the video tutorial below for step-by-step instructions:
Locating Online Resources
You can find electronic magazine, newspaper, and journal articles by using the library's databases. Some databases are general and cover many topics, such as Academic Search Complete. Others are more focused on a particular subject, such as science or literature. To access the databases, click on the database tab on the library homepage. You can then browse through them alphabetically, or browse by discipline (i.e., gender studies, history, etc.).
Academic Search Complete is a great place to start! For controversial topics, Opposing Viewpoints or Points of View Reference Center are worth checking out. For news articles, you can try Newspaper Source Plus or New York Times, there are more available in our database section. A good website for news is allsides.com.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Full text for about 8,500 periodicals including over 7,300 peer-reviewed journals across most areas of academic study as well as indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 magazines and journals. Coverage is from 1887 to the present.
- Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
Indexing for over 2200 journals in agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, geography, pollution and environmental law. Provides full-text for over 900 journals. Coverage is from 1888 to the present.
- Gale OneFile: Environmental Studies & Policy This link opens in a new window
Search for information about environmental issues with diverse perspectives from the scientific community, policymakers, and corporate interests.
- GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
Database contains indexing and abstracts for about 300,000 records related to the impact of humans on the environment from about 1915 to the present. Some full-text.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to journals in the fields of science, psychology, medicine, and technology.
- Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Search and discover overviews, news, and opinions on hundreds of today's important social issues.
- Points of View Reference Source This link opens in a new window
Contains full-text essays representing multiple sides of about 250 topics; in addition, the database includes political magazines, radio and television news transcripts, primary source documents, and reference books. Designed to provide a series of controversial essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. Essays provide questions and materials for further thought and study and are accompanied by thousands of supporting articles from the world's top political and societal publications.
- Newspaper Source Plus
Includes over 850 full-text U.S. and international newspapers as well as over 800,000 television and radio news transcripts.
- New York Times This link opens in a new window
All students and faculty have unlimited access to The New York Times digital platforms, including personalized user experience, live coverage of breaking news, access to NYT articles between 1851-current, access to the International edition and Canadian, Chinese, and Spanish editions, full access to the NYT Learning Network, and access to the InEducation resource that helps faculty bring current events into the classroom. This resource includes access to archival content and replaces Historical New York Times and New York Times Archive.