The Library makes books/textbooks, DVDs, and other course materials available online or in print for students to share access to as an alternative to purchasing them.
You can find your textbook and other course materials by searching in the Course Readings list using your professor's last name or course name.
If you do not see your textbook listed, then your professor may not have submitted the title(s) to the bookstore. Please reach out to your Subject Librarian to get more help with finding the item you need.
The Claremont Colleges Library use the Library of Congress Classification System to organize physical books in the library. Our science section can be found on the first (1st) floor of the Honnold side of the building.
LC Subclasses for Applied Life Sciences
When conducting academic research for your assignments, it is often stressed that you need to use articles from a scholarly journal.
Characteristics of scholarly journals include:
Scholarly journals are also known as 'academic journals', 'peer-reviewed journals'.
Primary and Secondary Sources from the SCC Library on Vimeo.
A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about a person, place or thing and was created during the time period in which it occurred. A wide variety of formats can be considered a primary source, as long as they meet the above criteria.
Examples:
Autobiographies and memoirs
Personal letters, diaries and business correspondence
Internet communications including emails, memos, blogs, ListServs and newsgroups
Photographs, drawings and posters
Artifacts
Scholarly articles (written during relevant time period)
Technical Reports
Books, magazines and newspapers (published during relevant time period)
A secondary source is something that has been created after the time period in which it occurred and by someone who may or may not have had first hand knowledge of the topic. They may describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate or summarize. Sometimes they will reorganize materials to make it easier to find primary source information - such as in the case of an encyclopedia.
Examples:
Bibliographies
Reference materials (dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases)
Articles from magazines, journals and newspapers (published after the event occurred)
Literature reviews
History books
Works of interpretation or criticism
Commentaries
Textbooks
Learning how to search databases is important because it is a little different than searching Google. This section will help you learn how to create searches and limit the thousands of records in the database to retrieve relevant information.
If you are having difficulty finding results, Ask Us. TCCL Librarians are happy to help.
It's often helpful to envision the process of completing your work before starting on searches. It allows you the space to organize your thoughts and plan steps so that you don't spend time aimlessly wandering.
Start with a general topic/broad keyword(s) then narrow as you build. Use a Thesaurus to find alternate terms. Brainstorm for keywords that are most important in defining your topic.
Boolean operators connect your search words together to either narrow or broaden your set of results. Using Boolean Operators will provide better and more accurate results. The three basic boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.
Use the citation chaining technique to find related articles.
