For best results, begin with a word search rather than a subject search. When you've found one entry for a book that looks good, you can easily find others like it by scrolling to the bottom of the screen and choosing one of the subjects listed for that book. You can access the catalog from any networked computer on campus and from off campus via the World Wide Web, telnet, or modem. The easiest way to access the catalog is to choose the link to it from the Library home page . For more information about accessing and using the catalog, see the Guide to the Lafayette Library Catalog .
Reference books are good sources for finding information quickly.
Particularly useful are specialized encyclopedias, where you can often find brief but fact-filled articles on your topic. Reference books are also an especially good place to start when you are looking for biographical information or literary criticism. To identify any reference books on your topic, do a word or subject search in the library catalog , then use the limit command to limit your search to items located in reference. In Skillman, reference books are located on the shelves across from and behind the reference desk. A Web version of Britannica is available from the Library Web site , as is a small but stellar collection of Web reference sources .