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Liberal Arts

Search our catalog

Use the search box below to run a quick search for books, or use the advanced search page to limit your material type to books prior to searching. 

How to search for print books in our library

  1. Use the search box on this page or go to the library catalog in Primo and input your search terms.

  2. On the search results page, go to the filters in the column on the right. Under the "Material type" section, click "Books."

    Screenshot of the section of the library catalog described above with a superimposed red arrow pointing to "books."

  3. Now go to the "Show only" section in the same filter column on the right. Click the check box to the left of "Available in the Library." Then click the "Apply Filters" button at the bottom of the screen.

    Screenshot of library catalog filters with an arrow pointing to "Available in the Library"

  4. See a title that looks interesting? The information you need to find it in-person is right there in the list of results. The entry itself often has other information to help you determine if it's useful, so click on the title if you want to know more about it first.

    Screenshot of an entry in the catalog with "Available at..." with the physical location underneath the title, author, and publisher information. A superimposed red arrow points to the floor it's located on and the call number.

  5. Before coming to the library, check our hours and make sure you have your UMass Pass to check out the book!

Browsing In-person for Books

Our library uses the Library of Congress Classification System to organize our books. If you know a little bit about what the call numbers stand for, you can browse the stacks more efficiently. 

Since liberal arts covers many different subject areas, I suggest taking a look at the classification system yourself to explore what subject is under which call number.

How to find print books we don't own

Reading Call Numbers

Here's a quick guide on how to read call numbers in our library (and most other academic libraries).

An image of a call number on a side of a book. An arrow points to the first line.

The first line is read in alphabetical order.

ex. PN would be before the PQ's but after the PM's.

An image of a call number on a side of a book. An arrow points to the second line.

Read the second line in numerical order.

ex. PN 6747 would be after PN 6746 and before PN 6747.1 or PN 6748.

An image of a call number on a side of a book. An arrow points to the third line.

The third line is tricky. Read the letter in alphabetical order then the number as a decimal.

ex. PN 6747 .S245 would come before PN 6747 .S5, because .5 in decimal is really .500!

An image of a call number on a side of a book. An arrow points to the fourth line.

Sometimes the fourth line will have another combination of letter and numbers, and you read it exactly like the other line.

ex. PN 6747 .S245 P4713 would come before PN 6747 .S245 P8, because .8 in decimal is really .800!

An image of a call number on a side of a book. An arrow points to the fifth line.

When you see a line near the bottom that looks like a year, it is a year! This goes in numerical order.

ex. If there was a book just like this except the date was 2003, it would go before the 2007 edition.

You could think of a call number like a detailed address in reverse: planet, country, state, city, street, street number. Each line helps you narrow down the book's exact location!

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