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Buena Vista University

Counseling Research Guide

This guide will direct graduate students in the Professional School Counseling and the Mental Health Counseling programs to BVU Library resources in their field.

Finding books on your topic

Image of BVU discovery search box

This search box appears at the top of the Library homepage.  It allows you to find all types of material available through the BVU Library, including the following:

  • Books and e-Books
  • Streaming video (e-Video) and other audio-visual items
  • Journal, newspaper and magazine articles.
  1. To restrict a search to books and e-books only, click on the "Books" tab above the discovery search window.  You can also limit your search results to any format you prefer as you review your search results.
  2. Enter your search term or terms and click the "Search" button to get your results.
  3. An "Advanced Search" option is available if you have several terms you 'd like to combine.  Click the link for an advanced search screen which if found under the "Search" button.
  4. Another feature of our Discovery Search is that you can toggle between items held by the BVU Library (the default)  or you can expand your search to other libraries by clicking on  "Libraries Worldwide."  This option appears in the left column of your search results.  Remember that you can use our Interlibrary Loan service to obtain any books or articles you identify that are not available locally. This service is available at no charge to BVU students.

Starting a book search

In the BVU Catalog, it usually works best to begin with a simple search. You can then narrow your search from the results page, using the options that will be presented in the left column of that page.
 

Simple Search

If you're looking for a specific item, you can do a simple search by entering the book title or the author into the search box.

If you need a book on your topic, but aren't aware of a specific book, you can enter a subject search term or phrase in quotation marks.  Example: "bilingual education"

Note that if you do a simple search you may get many results and will need to look through many results for the right item. 

Limiting Search Results 

From the search results page, you can limit your results by format, publication date and language. 

If BVU doesn't have material available on your topic, you can switch your results to  "Libraries Worldwide" to see what other options exist outside of our library.  We have a service called Interlibrary Loan that can obtain those items for you at no charge.

Advanced Search

For more precise searching, use the Advanced Search. Click "Advanced Search" to the right of the search box. You can then limit your search terms to specified fields, like Title or Author or Subject.

Reviewing the book search results

To decide which item/s are relevant to you, view information on the results page. It includes basic information like the item's title, author, publication date, and availability. Click on a book title to see the full record and more details about the book (e.g., full summary, relevant subjects, chapter titles where available).

Options to obtain the book are available to you in the box on the right side of the screen.  If you are an online student, place the book "On Hold" and we will mail the book to your home.  Please plan to pay the postage to return the book.

At the bottom of this screen, you can "browse the shelf" to see if there are other books of interest to you.

Finding and using ebooks

Electronic Books (ebooks)

You can find our ebook collection using the search box at the top of the Library home page.

Narrow your search to ONLY by ebooks by clicking this two settings in the left column of your search results page. 

Click any book title to get a more complete description of the title.

Click the "View eBook" button to go the content of the ebook.

Best bet: Ignore the "download" option and either email or save the sections of the book you need.  Ebooks have limits to the amount of content you can save or email.  If you exceed the page limit, begin a new session to capture additional pages.

Requesting print books for home delivery (Online students)

We are happy to lend off-campus students and faculty books from our collection.  Use the search box at the top of Library web page to see what is available to you.

Note that this book has a checkmark and a status of "Available" in the BVU Library Main Collection.

Click on the title of the book to go to the full description.

screen shot of print book in BVU catalog

At the full description screen you'll see the Access Options in a box in the upper right corner.  Click "Place Hold" to let us know you want to use this book.  If you are on Online student, you'll have the option to have the book sent to your home or you can pick it up at the BVU Library.  Please allow one week for home delivery.

Please note: you will be responsible for postage charges to return the book to the BVU Library.

screen shot demonstrating a book request from the BVU Library catalog