There are many ways to locate books for research purposes, both in the collections at Western Libraries and in other libraries. Despite the growth in e-books, not all books are available in digital formats.
Western Libraries collects e-books and print books, both of which can be found via Western's Library Catalogue (Omni). You can search by a known title or author, or by keyword or subject searching.
Western’s Library Catalogue uses the subject headings from the Library of Congress. We acknowledge that some subject headings contain offensive or discriminatory language. Please see Problematic Language in the Library Catalogue: Statement of Acknowledgement.
If Western Libraries does not have the book you need, request it from another library using Interlibrary Loans. The service is free for Western and Affiliate students, faculty, and staff.
WorldCat is the world’s largest catalogue of library materials (taken from 15,600 libraries in 107 countries). Use this database to locate hard-to-find books.
Digital libraries offer access to books in multiple formats. In certain cases, you have the option of downloading them as pdf files for personal use.
A helpful way to locate books in German is to search library catalogues in German-speaking countries. Once you have found a title of interest, you can search for it in Western's Library Catalogue (Omni) or request it via Interlibrary Loans.