If you are looking for a particular book, or books by a favorite author, you might be able to go directly to the shelves in the library and walk out with what you want. Let's say you are interested in a copy of Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates.

To find out if we have a copy at Missouri S&T, begin by clicking the MERLIN Library Catalog link in the navigation bar on the left side of the page.

Since you know the title of the book you are looking for, you can perform a very efficient search by changing Keyword to Title.

Now, enter the title of the book you want and perform your search.

If we have a copy of the book at Missouri S&T, a page will open describing the book, its availability, and its location in the library. This is called a holdings record.

The holdings record tells us the bibliographic citation information identifying the book

The record also tells us if the book is currently available to be checked out

and where in the library the book is located.

In this case, the book is in the Paperback Collection, which is on the first floor of the library. Its call number is PABA Oa7b 2007; library books are arranged alphanumerically by call number.

It is not unheard of for many different books to share the same title, or the same first few words of a title. If we have several books beginning with the phrase you searched for, links to each of those individual records will appear.

If you are not looking for a particular book but instead are looking for works by a particular author, you can perform an Author search instead of a Title search.

Be aware that library catalogs require you to enter an author's last name before his or her first name.

If the library has any books by that author, links to the records for those books will be displayed.

If your book is not available at Missouri S&T, or if it is currently checked out, you may still be able to get a copy delivered to you at no charge from one of the other University of Missouri libraries. To see if this is an option, you can perform a MERLIN search.