Locating Print Materials

Search for books on campus, in Nebraska, and throughout the country

Locating Books Using the Online Catalog Books in the North Platte and McCook Community College libraries can be located using the online catalog. From this page, select the Home Tab and the home page (http://library.mpcc.edu) will display the above search box. Type a query in the Catalog Search box. A keyword search of the North Platte and McCook collections will be run. The software will generate a list of books and other materials that match the entered term. Our catalog is usually available 24 hours a day and books can be checked out anytime the libraries are open. Items can usually be transferred from one campus to another in just a day or two. Ask a librarian if you need an item that is not on your campus. Off-campus students may request a book by email and receive it in a few days by regular mail. Advanced Search Books, videos, CDs, ebooks, and Internet sites are included in the online catalog. By default, all NPCC and MPCC libraries and media types are searched, but the various collections can be searched individually. Access Advanced Search by clicking the Search Agent logo on the home page or login to My Account. Use Scoping (2) and Material Type (3) to limit your results. For example, to find a music recording in North Platte, limit results to CDs in the South Campus Library. You can also limit your search to a field (4), such as title, author, or subject, and use 'AND','OR','NOT' operators to limit or expand your search. Visitors are welcome to search the catalog, but students should login and access their individual accounts. The About link explains how to create and use an account.

Search Example The results of a search (5) for the Neil Simon play, The Odd Couple, are shown in this illustration. The display indicates the library that has the play, the call number used to locate the book on the shelves, and the item's availability. Click the Title to open a new window (6) that provides additional information about the item. This widow includes bibliographic and other information useful for research. Title Window A search for plays by Tennessee Williams yields several book titles and a DVD found on the McCook campus. Open the title window (6), and similar materials can be found by clicking a subject (7)link. Click the author link to find other works the author has written. The information in this window is useful when citing sources or preparing bibliographies. Search Features The results list contains tools that allow efficient and productive research. The Left Pane (8) contains a search history, a summary of resources, and related topic links. Tools (9) to print, email, or save results are always at the top of the list. Clicking the box (10) to the left of an item will limit results to the checked materials. The call number link (11) allows a quick browse of materials with similar call numbers; locating books that are comparable in content. Web based links (12), often consisting of a content summary, table of contents, or sample chapter, can often be used to determine if a book contains useful information without perusing the book. Browse Collections / Find New Books The Browse tab (19) is useful for finding variant headings or spellings of titles, subjects, or authors. After selecting Browse, type in your query and a list of similar topics will appear. In this example (20), the cross reference from Supreme Court (U.S.) states that the correct entry is United States., Supreme Court. Recent Items (21) searches for materials that have been catalog within the last 1 - 12 weeks (22). If search boxes are left blank or unchanged, all materials cataloged during the selected time period will be displayed. See the Recent Items help page for more information. Finding Magazine Articles Although a Web search may find a few quality articles, most publishers restrict access to magazine and journal articles. MPCC subscribes to several databases that allow student access to thousands of full-text journals that date back 15 or more years. Off-campus access is provided through Campus Web or the online catalog. Login to My Account (How do I do this?) and choose the databases (13) at the bottom of the page that you want to search. Click Licensed Content (13) to search all databases available in the catalog or toggle on/off individual databases using the check box (14) in front of each title. Finding Magazine Articles Type a term or phrase in the search box (15) to obtain a list of results from the selected (14) databases. Individual database results can be toggled on or off by clicking the bullet (16) in the heading. Boxes (17) to the left of titles allow selection of articles for bibliographies. Titles (18) are linked to full text articles or abstracts in the parent database. Magazine databases may also be accessed through your Campus Web account or by use of passwords. For more information, see the Library Guide, "How to Access Databases". WorldCat Results Use WorldCat to find books and other materials that are not in the collections at Mid-Plains. Students can access WorldCat from off campus computers through CampusWeb accounts. The FirstSearch screen allows a basic search (1) by typing a keyword. Click the WorldCat link (2) for an advanced screen that allows more control and structuring of your search. You can also select other databases from this page such as MedLine or World Almanac by clicking the Databases tab. WorldCat Results A search for the term cognitive therapy (1) in WorldCat yields over 3300 books on the topic plus hundreds of videos, sound recording, documents, and Internet sites. Several limiters can be used including specifying the type of media (2) wanted. Caring for the mind is one of the books listed that can be borrowed from several libraries. The Libraries Worldwide link list libraries, beginning with libraries in Nebraska, that own a copy. To borrow a book or other item from a library, see the instructions on the Interlibrary Loan page. The catalog also allows you to search for materials in MPCC's collection or area libraries (3) such as North Platte Public or McCook Public. NetLibrary / ebooks Over 17000 ebooks are available for online use. These books can be accessed from NetLibrary (www.netlibrary.org) or from the MPCC's online catalog. In the above example, a keyword search for stem cells found several books. Clicking the View this ebook link under the Proteus Effect, displayed the full-text book. Use the tools in the left sidebar to search the content, look-up definitions in the dictionary, take notes, email or save partial content. For more information, go to the Help page on their Web site. You will need to create a Free Account from a computer on one of the campuses to access NetLibrary from home. Online students may have accounts created by contacting one of the libraries.