The Oliver Wendell Holmes Library has thousands of books in print for your use! In order to find books in our library, use the OWHL Catalog below. You are also welcome to browse the open stacks in the library. For anything in closed stacks, you may place a hold on the book in the online catalog and you will be notified once it is pulled, or ask a librarian at the help desk to get it for you immediately. You may check out any materials available at the OWHL.
If you find a book here that is helpful, be sure to look at the table of contents and/or the index, which will help you identify the section of the book you may need. Also, you should use your skimming skills to find paragraphs or sections within a chapter that may be helpful. It would likely be best to search here after you have looked at reference databases.
In addition to our print resources, we subscribe to e-book databases, which can be searched below. E-books found in these databases will also show up with links in our catalog. These databases are paid for by the library so you will only have use of them while you are a student here.
For access to free e-books, try both Internet Archive and Hathi Trust. Thousands of books are scanned in these free websites for use at any time, even after you have left P.A.. For complete access to Internet Archive, create a FREE account with a personal email so you can use it in the future.
If you need help finding anything at all, please don't hesitate to chat online with a librarian at "OWHL Answers", or go to the help desk and ask a librarian in person. We are here for you!!
Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Catalog
| Keyword Searching | |
| Typically, when you search, you will use keywords. Simply enter the basic ideas/keywords of your topic in the search box. The computer will search for books containing those keywords in the title, subjects, and descriptions of the books. | |
| Subject Searching | |
| Subject searching is more powerful than keyword searching. It allows you to use a specific vocabulary to find books in the catalog. To find a good subject, look at the display page of a book you already like. Click on the subject link to run a search |