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Nursing and Health Research

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Borrowing Items Between MSJC Campuses

You can request items to be delivered between the Libraries if you find a book that is not available at the campus you use. Library staff can place the request for you, or use the steps below to place the request yourself from the library catalog.

  1. From your search results page, click on the title of the book to get to the full record page. 
  2. In the Get It section, click in the yellow bar "Please sign in to check if there are any request options" to sign in to your library account using your mymsjc username and password.
  3. Click on the Request option and fill in any necessary information.
  4. You will be notified through your student email in 2-3 days when the book is available for pickup.

E-books

The MSJC Libraries purchase or subscribe to over 250,000 e-books. Some are reference sources that are helpful in getting background information on a topic. Others are online versions of books you might find on the library shelves.

Use the Start Your Research Here box on the left to begin looking for e-books in the library catalog, or try searching directly from our EBSCO e-book collection.

Looking for background info on your topic? Try searching for psychology-related books in our reference databases:

Credo Reference - contains content from hundreds of reference books covering every major subject.

Gale Virtual Reference Library - a database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.

Oxford Reference - contains sources such as specialized dictionaries and subject encyclopedias.

Understanding Call Numbers

Have you ever wondered how library books are assigned their places on the shelves? Each item is given a unique code, called a call number, that is printed on the spine label of the book. A call number is like an address: it tells us where the book is located in the library. Knowing a little bit about call numbers will help you find the items you need in the library.

Understanding Call Numbers

Like many academic libraries, the MSJC Libraries use Library of Congress Classification for call numbers. This system uses a combination of letters and numbers to arrange materials by broad subjects, specific subtopics, and authors or titles. When you search for a book in the library catalog, you'll see that each one has a call number. Jot the number down and you can match it to the spine label of that specific book on the shelf. Because books are arranged by subject, you can often find other books nearby that will fit your research. This does not mean that all books on a topic will be in the same section, though! For example, if you search the online catalog for books on "social media addiction," they could be located under social media or personality disorders, which are shelved in different areas of the library. Check out the image below which shows three different call numbers for books found with a search for "social media addiction."

call number screenshot for social media addiction search

Reading Call Numbers

Let's break down finding a book on the shelf using the first example above. In the catalog the call number is displayed left to right as HM742 .M657 2020. On the spine label it will be laid out top to bottom:

HM

742

.M657

2020

To find the book on the shelf, go down the label, reading each line as you go.

  • First look for the HM section alphabetically. All books starting with HM will be together on the shelf.
  • Next look for the number 742. This is a whole number, but some books may also have a decimal in this number, breaking the topic down more. All books with HM 742 will be together on the shelf.
  • Now move to the next section .M657. Find HM 742 .M alphabetically and look for .M657. Notice the decimal point in front! This decimal is important to remember because numbers in this section are read as decimals. .M5473 would come before .M657, which would be before .M72.
  • The last line is the date the book was published, 2020.

This covers the basics of understanding a call number. Be sure to ask at any of the service desks for assistance if you have trouble finding what you need!

Interested in learning more about how the Library of Congress system arranges materials by subjects? Check out the Library of Congress Classification Outline to find the letters for your subject area. This will give you a place to start browsing the shelves.