LibGuides: Pathway Te Huarahi: Books

Find books using Library Search

The Library catalogue is called Library Search | Ketu and it's on the Library homepage

How to request a book using Library Search Ketu
You can request most books that are out on loan or sitting on the Library shelves. You can even choose the Library you want to collect them from.
How to request a copy of a book chapter using Library Search l Ketu
How to find a book on the shelf (video)
This short video explains what book information you need from Library Search | Ketu so you can find that book on the Library shelves.

How are books in the library organised?

Most of the University of Otago Library collections use the Library of Congress classification system (LC).

Under this system, the collection is organised by broad subject areas and these subject areas are represented by a letter :

For example:

H = Social Sciences
L = Education
N = Fine Arts
K= Law.
W = Medicine
There are also lots of subdivisions within classes (e.g. HF = Commerce, LA = History of Education and ND = Painting).
Go to a list of all the Library of Congress subject areas

The call number (or label) on Library items will start with 1 or 2 letters that represent the part of the collection they are in. These call numbers start with an L so the books must be about Education and be shelved in the Education collection.

How to find a book in the Library (video)
This short video explains how to go from finding a book in the Library catalogue (Library Search | Ketu), to finding it on the Library shelves.

E-book databases in the Library

eBooks will show up in your Library Search Ketu search results but you can also search a variety of e-book databases, some of them a listed below:

Very Short Introductions This link opens in a new window
Concise introductions to a wide range of subjects, written by experts in the field who combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make challenging topics highly readable.

Taylor & Francis Ebooks
Routledge Handbooks Online
Access handbooks on research and future trends in the Social Sciences and Humanities.
SAGE Knowledge eBooks
A database of ebooks offered by SAGE publishers on a wide range of subject areas. The e-books which also appear in Library Search Ketu.
Bridget Willaims Books: The New Zealand History Collection
A collection of ebooks covering topics in New Zealand history and contemporary social issues.
SpringerLink
SpringerLink - search a database of e-books offered by Springer on topics such as: architecture, design, behavioral science, biomedical and life sciences, business, economics, chemistry, materials science, computer science, earth and environmental science, humanities, social sciences, law, mathematics, statistics, medicine, physics, and, professional and applied computing.

Library eBooks

Library eBooks:

The Library has a large collection of eBooks and they look like this in Library Search Ketu results:

Click on the book title to open the eBook
Click on view details to get more information about the eBook

Using Library eBooks

Most Library e-books can be downloaded as a pdf to your computer or device (the whole thing or individual chapters).
eBooks provided by ProQuest eBook Central can be downloaded as a pdf but only for a limited period of time (e.g. 3-7 days) and you need to install freely available software first.

Software requirements for ProQuest eBooks Central:

If you want to be able to downloaded the entire eBook to your computer/device (for a specified period of time) you need to download the following free software first:

Books provided by ProQuest eBooks Central can be read online without the need for installing any software.
To download a ProQuest eBook to a PC or laptop you require Adobe Digital Editions (free to download).
To download to a ProQuest eBook to e-reader, iPad, tablet or other mobile device you require Adobe Blue Fire Reader (free to download).
Downloading, saving or printing chapters from a ProQuest eBook requires no additional software, but we recommend that you don't use the Firefox browser when printing pages - IE, Google Chrome or Safari work fine though.

ProQuest eBooks Central and DRM (Digital Rights Management)
ProQuest eBooks have have DRM software built into their eBooks that tracks the proportion of an eBook you can save, print or copy. The DRM software will tell you how many pages from a publication you can print, save or copy in a 24 hour period.