Finding Books, Audio-Visual Material and More

Normally, searches for books, etc. are done in this order:

Bowdoin Library Catalog

The Library's Catalog contains records for most (see what's not in the catalog) of the material housed in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library and the branch libraries. There are also catalog records for items placed on course reserve by instructors, and for each periodical title owned by the Library.

A sample record

 The Catalog is linked to the Library's circulation system so the catalog record will show whether an item is checked out, and when it is due.

Searching the Bowdoin College Library Catalog

The search options are: Title, Author, Find Journal, Subject, Word, and Call Numbers. For more detailed search help, including information on finding material types such as videos, limiting searches, or conducting boolean searches, go to Library Catalog Search Help and/or Tips for Searching Library Databases.

  • For author searches, type in the last name, first name, e.g., Chamberlain, Joshua
  • For a complete or partial title, type in as much as you know, e.g., For Whom the Bell
  • The Find Journal option searches for magazine and journal subscriptions, both electronic and print versions. Type in as much as you know, e.g., Journal of Economic
  • If you are searching for material on a particular topic, try a word or subject search. Click here for more information on word and subject searching
  • Call Number searching allows you to look up material by any of the several classification systems used in the library; these are:


What's not in the Catalog

Some collections and items are not in the catalog. These are:

Some Special Collections materials
Please ask in the Special Collections Department on Level 3 of the Library.

Some Government Documents
Please use the online U.S. Government Publications Catalog. See also the Finding Government Documents search tips page.

Individual articles in journals, magazines or newspapers. Take a look at Finding Periodical Articles for help with finding articles.

Borrowing Material

Loan rules for library materials vary, depending on:

  • the format (books, journal volumes, videos, musical scores)
  • the collection they belong to (course reserves, reference books, display books)

For details on loan rules, please see the loan period table.

Items in some collections do not circulate at all and must be used within the building. Examples of items that do not circulate: reference books; Special Collections materials; and the collections housed in the Art Library.

NExpress

If you do not find all of the material you are looking for in the Bowdoin Library Catalog, then try NExpress. It is a combined catalog containing the library holdings of regional partner libraries, including Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Wellesley, Williams, Middlebury, and Northeastern. Requests take 2-3 days.
MaineCat

In addition, you can try MaineCat, a combined catalog containing the holdings of most Maine libraries. Requests take 2-5 days.
WorldCat

WorldCat is a combined database of many library catalogs worldwide. Material on WorldCat normally is requested through the Interlibrary Loan service.