Specific Book Search
Sometimes you may want to search for a specific book, journal or journal article and want to know if it is owned by the Queens College Libraries and how to get it.
If you want to find out if the Queens College Libraries own a particular item (for example, a book, audio/video recording, CD, musical score) use the CUNY Catalog.
The CUNY Catalog is available in two places on the Library Homepage: CUNY Catalog under Research, and Find Books & Media in the Quick Links on the left of the page.
There are many ways to search the CUNY Catalog. You can search by Title, Author, Subject or all of the above. When you are searching for a specific item, Title begins with… is usually most efficient.
If you were searching for a copy of The Joy Luck Club, you would select Title begins with… from the Select search type box and enter the title of the book. Notice that you leave off the word “the” at the beginning of the title. You could also have used the author search and entered Tan Amy to search for books by Amy Tan. Or, if you already knew the call number, you could have searched for that.
The alphabetical list of titles includes the one you want. You will get a more detailed list if you click on it.
On the right, one column tells you what kind of item this is: DVD, VHS or book. The next column tells you where to find the item. For the call number, you will need to click on the word Queens.
If you click on the call number for the third item, you will see information about where it is held:
Location tells you which on floor of the library the book can be found.
Books in the stacks may be on either level four or level five. To discover which, look at the first letter of the call number. If the first letter is between A and L in the alphabet, the book is on level four. If it is P or a later letter, the book is on level five.
In this case, the call number begins with P, so the book is on level five. To learn more about finding books using their call numbers, please see our call number tutorial.
- Reference Level 3
- Periodicals Level 1
- Reserve Circ. Level 3
- Art Stacks Level 6
- Juvenile Level 4
All of these should tell you where the item is located. Reserve Circ. means that you will need to ask for the item at the reference desk. If you would like to know where your item is on that floor, please see this map of the library.
Due date tells you whether a book is currently available. If there is a date listed here, someone else has checked out the book. In this case, the book is not currently checked out to anyone and is available for you to check out.
If the Queens College Library does not have the book you want, you may be able to get it through CLICS.
