English

Hale Library

Where can you find books in Hale? Use Search It to look up books in our collection.

Search It will tell you if we own a copy of the book.

• Ebooks will have a link to view online
• Physical book will have call number that serves as kind of the address for the book, and an option to "Map it" and see a map of Hale Library with your book location marked on the map. 

Use these maps of Hale to help find your way. 

Main Collection locations by call number:

• A - DS 56 Stack A (1st floor)
• DS 57 - HB 520 Stack B (between 1st and 2nd floor)
• HB 521 - JV Stack C (2nd floor)
• JX – L Stack D (between 2nd and 3rd floor)
• M-N (Music & Art Collection) 3rd Floor
• P- PN 4887 Stack D (between 2nd and 3rd floor)
• PN 4888 - PR Stack E (3rd floor)
• PS - PZ Stack F (between 3rd and 4th floor)
• Q – ZA  4th Floor

Other Collections

Some of our collections are in special locations; below are areas that may be of interest to those studying and researching English.

• Current Periodicals Room 240 (West)
• Curriculum Materials Collection (CMC) Room 140 (West), aka Carlson Reading Room
• DOW Center Reference Room 240 (East)
• Juvenile Literature Collection (Juv Lit) Room 140 (East), aka Carlson Reading Room
• Media Collection - DVDs 3rd Floor (East)
• Media Collection Oversize 3rd Floor (East)
• Reference Collection 3rd Floor (East)

Annex, Weigel Architecture Library, Math/Physics Library, Veterinary Medical Library

Some of our materials are housed in other locations or libraries at K-State. Depending on the location, you may pull the book from the shelf yourself, or use the links in Search It to request the item:

• Annex Offsite--Sign in to place a request for retrieval.
  • The Annex is a building for storage off campus. It is not open for browsing.
• K-State Salina Library -- pull from the shelf or sign in to place a request for retrieval.
  • This library is located on the Salina campus.
• Math/Physics Library Stacks -- pull from the shelf or sign in to place a request for retrieval.
  • The Math/Physics Library is located at 105 Cardwell Hall on the Manhattan campus.
• Paul Weigel Library of Architecture, Planning & Design Stacks -- pull from the shelf or sign in to place a request for retrieval.
  • Weigel Library is located on the ground floor of Regnier Hall on the Manhattan campus.
• Veterinary Medical Library Stacks -- sign in to place a request for retrieval.
  • The VetMed Library is located in Trotter Hall on the Manhattan campus.

Special Collections and University Archives

Special Collections and University Archives is located on the 5th floor of Hale Library.

You may be able to access the materials. Send an email to check on availability and/or schedule an appointment: libsc@k-state.edu

Search It

Use Search It to find books owned by K-State Libraries.

Enter title, author, or keywords in the Search It box on the Libraries home page.

Click the K-State Libraries only option on the search results page to only see items owned by K-State.

If we own the title, Search it will tell you where it is and how you can find it.

• Some books are e-books and may link to a database instead of showing a call number and location. Follow the links to view the book.
• When you find a relevant book, follow the links for Subjects (under Details) to find similar books.
• When you find a relevant book, look for the Virtual Browse feature at the bottom of the book's record in Search It. This will show you the books that would be shelved next to the one you are looking at. Books shelved next to each other often have similar topics.

WorldCat

Use the database WorldCat to find books owned by libraries around the world. Usually we can borrow a copy from another library for you through Interlibrary Loan.

 Search It and WorldCat do not search the full text of a book, just information about the book. Search using broad search terms like the author, title of the work, or genre.

Every book in the library has a call number, and you'll need the whole number to find one on the shelf. 

When searching for an original work or text, like Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, you will often see false hits such as works with similar titles or criticisms of the work. 

Use these strategies to focus your results in order to find the actual text of the work:

Search for an original work with an author

Search It

Use the Advanced Search screen to limit your search terms to fields like Author or Title.

Click the K-State Libraries only tab to limit your results to materials owned by K-State Libraries.

For example, when searching for a copy of Much Ado About Nothing, entering Shakespeare in the Author/Creator field means that the only results you will see must have Shakespeare as the author.

Pro tip: Shakespeare still gets author credit for films and musical works based on his writing, so you may still see false hits, just fewer of them.

WorldCat

The author and title options appear on the basic search screen, the screen that appears when WorldCat opens.

Use quotation marks around a title of a work to force WorldCat to search it as an exact phrase.

For example, when searching for James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain

• Enter Baldwin as the author
• Enter "Go tell it on the mountain" as the title.

Search for anonymous original works

In Search It and WorldCat, use the title search and add a keyword or two to describe a unique feature of the work.

• Pro-tip, the Literary Reference Center database is a good source of information about classic works.

For example, when searching for The Pearl, add the term middle English to your search. Also try the term Gawain, as the author is sometimes referred to as Gawain Poet.

When searching for a specific edition or translation of a work, add the editor, translator, or series title to your search.

For example, if you are searching for the Yale Shakespeare edition of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in Search It:

• use the Advanced Search screen
• click on the K-State Libraries only tab
• Enter: Shakespeare as the author/creator, Much Ado About Nothing as the title, and Yale Shakespeare in the third box, keeping the any option

• There are 20 versions of Much Ado About Nothing grouped together. Click on the tab View 20 versions.

• The versions are shown with the most recently published at the top of the list. Click Sorted by: and select Relevance

The sought for edition should appear at the top of the results list.

Step 1. To locate materials in Special Collections, enter your search term.

Step 2. Change the tab at the top to "K-State Libraries Only." Limit search to Special Collections and University Archives.

That's It!  This search yielded 2,121 results located in the Morse Department, 506 Hale Library.