Books - Library Liaisons Workshop - Research Skills II (HC) - Research Guides at Tri-College Libraries

Commemorating LGBTQ Protest

Ann Northrup, Close up of a scene from the Pride and Progress mural (Source: flickr)

Finding Scholarly Studies in Books

Use the Tripod catalog This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new window to look for relevant books owned by Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore.

The following subject searches are a sampling of possibilities. To find materials on a topic, try doing a title search in the Tripod Catalog to find some relevant material and then use the subject headings assigned to those titles to find more books.

"natural history" AND "united states" [Subject] AND (women* OR gender*) [Keyword]

"women in science" [Subject] AND (18th OR 19th) [Keyword]

(education OR seminary OR school*) AND (women* OR girl* OR gender*) AND "united states" AND 19th [Subject]

Tripod Catalog
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Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges each have their own Tripod catalog. Use Tripod to find relevant scholarship owned by your home library as well as print resources at the other two schools. To see digital material owned only by BMC, use the BMC Tripod link (tripod.brynmawr.edu). You will need to be on the BMC campus in order to access those digital resources.
Change the resource group on the search bar to limit results to specific materials like books and films.
Use the Request link in an item's record to have it delivered to the library of your choice . Note that you need to log into Tripod in order to see the Request link. If you are already in Tripod, use the Sign In link at the top of every page to log in.

WorldCat
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A catalog of the holdings of books, journals, and other materials held by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) member libraries throughout the United States and in countries around the globe.
WorldCat is an important place to look for many materials not owned by the Tri-College Libraries. This combined library catalog contains more than 400 million records describing items owned by libraries. Many of these items are available to you though interlibrary loan. Use the FindIt button in individual WorldCat records to request items you want to borrow.

Borrowing beyond the Tri-Co
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1. E-Z Borrow - Request books that are not available in Tripod. It usually takes three days or less for E-Z Borrow books to arrive.
2. Interlibrary Loan (ILL) - Request books not in E-Z Borrow. They can come in as little as four or five days. Also use ILL to request films, dissertations, sound recordings, and other materials.
3. Articles - Request journal articles not available in your college library. You will receive digital copies of the articles in your email sometimes as quickly as the following day.

Library FAQ

1) How can I use library resources when I am away from Haverford?

Use the Off-Campus Access Link to login with your email user name and password. This will give you access to all the online journals and ebooks to which Haverford subscribes. Once in EZProxy, your URLs will carry “ezproxy.haverford.edu” as part of the address while you navigate to resources in Tripod. For this reason it is important that you click on links rather than type in URLs.

You can also request digital copies of articles and chapters of books through interlibrary loan services. They will be sent to your email address.

2) I came across a journal article on the Web, but it costs money. Should I get it?

No. The library can supply the materials you need. First, check to see if the item is in our catalog. If not, Google the title to see if it is available on the Web. If not, request it through Article Delivery. The Interlibrary Loan Department, led by Rob Haley, is able to get digital copies of many articles without charges for students, faculty, and staff at Haverford.

3) How can I renew books?

You can renew many of the titles you have checked out through your Tripod account. Use the Sign In link (upper right-hand corner) to log in. Go to the Loans page to renew individual titles. If there is a problem renewing one, please send a message to illmail@haverford.edu. You will always receive an email message reminding you that a title is due soon. You can reply to that reminder to ask for a renewal.