Communication 

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Check the status of your ILL requests:

• My ILL Requests  

Request an item directly from Melvyl or a database (FASTEST service):

• Melvyl (books) 
• Article Indexes and Databases (using "UC-eLinks") 

In the UCSB Library:

• UCSB Library Catalog Basic Search
  • A simple tool for finding books here at UCSB

• UCSB Library Catalog Advanced Search
  • Use Advanced Search for complex searches

In UC Libraries and Beyond:

• Next-Gen Melvyl Basic Search
  • A simple tool for finding books in all UC Libraries - and beyond

• Next-Gen Melvyl Advanced Search
  
  • For complex searches in all UC Libraries - and beyond

Start with Keywords:

• Keyword searching uses your vocabulary - words that you think best represent your topic. A keyword search looks for matches between your words and words in the titles, subject headings, tables of content (etc.) of books in the Library catalog.
  
  
• Try to think of the different words that a person writing on your topic might use.  For example, the concept of children might be expressed using the words children or adolescents or boys or girls.  Enter these words on one line of your search screen, separated by the word OR:
  
  • Line 1 (Keyword): children OR adolescents OR boys OR girls

• Consider using the UCSB Library Catalog Advanced Search for complex searches.  Break your topic into its component facets and search for each facet on a separate line of the Advanced Search screen.  For example, if you are looking for information about "how viewing violence on television affects children," you might enter the following:

Follow the Subject Headings:

• In libraries, subjects are drawn from a controlled vocabulary: the librarian who "catalogs" (creates a catalog record for) a book selects words or phrases from a list of subjects (the Library of Congress Subject Headings), choosing one or more subjects that s/he believes best represents what the book is about.
  
  
• When you have a set of results from your keyword search, you can click on titles to see additional information on each book, including what subjects have been assigned to the book.  If one of the subject headings describes all or part of your topic well, you can click on that subject to "Find other items in the Pegasus Catalog" that have been assigned that same subject heading.  In the example below, you could click on "Violence in mass media" to see a list of every other book in the Library that has been assigned the same subject heading.  

Go to the Stacks:

• Once you have identified good sources of information on your topic, write down what you need to know to find it in the Library stacks: the author's name, the title of the book, its Library location (e.g. Main Library or Native American Studies) and the call number - the address of where the book "lives" on the Library's shelves.
• The salmon-colored Library Locations guide (you can find these posted all around the Library) will help you know which floor and section of the Library to go to to find your book.