Find Books is a discovery tool that allows students to find out whether books on a topic (or by a specific author or title) are available at Cal State Fullerton and easily expand their search if the necessary books are not found.
Find Books makes it easy for the user to broaden the search to include all 23 California State University libraries in order to either request the book from another library (the book icon), or locate the nearest library that has the book (the car icon). Users requiring an even larger discovery universe can also launch their search into worldcat.org with its 10,000 participating libraries.
Find Books is not a replacement for the Pollak Library Catalog, which still remains the place to search for non-book formats, such as CD’s, DVD’s, etc. Journals are best located using the Find Journals by Title link on the Library’s homepage.
Find Books is an experimental interface that allows the Library to incorporate some features not available in the Pollak Library Catalog, including one-click interlibrary loan, a spell checker, the “find in a nearby library” feature, book covers, and a results listing which includes all necessary location information without clicking into the full record.
Find Books v. 1.0 provides basic search and display functionality. Features that do not exist now, but may be included in future versions include:
With Find Books, the Pollak Library has begun to explore how to develop a more intuitive, student-centered searching environment, in which library data is freed from the constraints of specific software products and can be presented in new ways that enhance students’ ability to conduct academic research.
The Find Books Pollak Library and CSU Libraries searches query the SirsiDynix Horizon catalog (Cal State Union Catalog) and bring back bibliographic and holdings data in XML format. The application uses Ajax technology to allow results to load while the user inspects the first results. It also incorporates worldcat.org for the “Search libraries worldwide” and “Find a nearby library” features, the Yahoo! spell checker and book covers from Amazon.com.