Research Guides: Service Learning: Find Books

Useful Handouts

Check out these handouts to better understand call numbers and information about Rio Hondo Library.

If you can't find your book at Rio Hondo Library, try searching the following library catalogs:

CSULA Library
Currently enrolled Rio Hondo students (in good standing) are eligible to borrow books from the CSULA Library! Just present your student ID, proof of current registration, and agree to fines and polices set forth by CSULA.
Whittier Public Library
All California residents can apply for a free library card.
County of Los Angeles Public Library
Find books from over 80 branch locations, including three in Whittier and two in El Monte! Library cards are free for all California residents. If a book is unavailable at your closest library branch, you can have another branch send it to your library.
Los Angeles Public Library
Find books from over 70 branch locations. Library Cards are free to residents of California.
WorldCat
Search for books in libraries near you! Included are public, college, and university libraries.

The Library Catalog is essentially a search engine to find books and other materials at Rio Hondo Library.

PRINT BOOKS

When you find a book, be sure to find the following information:

Call number (the book's address to physically find the book on shelf)
Location/Status (where the book is and if it's available; most books are located in Circulating Book Stacks)

EBOOKS

When looking for ebooks, look for titles that say "electronic resource."

SEARCH TIPS

If you’re not finding anything with your chosen keywords, try searching synonyms (example: “social media” instead of “social networks”).
Books in the library are organized by subject so when you find a book on the shelf, feel free to browse the area to find similar books.
Take a look at the Subject terms in the book's catalog record (see above). By clicking on a Subject term, the Library Catalog searches for other books that have the same Subject term.
You can also use quotation marks (" ") to specificially search a phrase. This helps to further limit your searches; for example, if you type in the words air pollution, the computer will look for any result with the word air and any with the word pollution, but if you search "air pollution" the computer will more likely find that specific combination of words together.