ENGL 126 Research Writing: Humanities (Bones)

Beyond our collection: Interlibrary Loan

Using the Interlibrary Loan Service

InterLibrary Loan: No library has it all! But the InterLibrary Loan (or ILL) is a service offered by Holman Library for borrowing books and articles from other libraries. InterLibrary Loan requests are free to current GRC students, faculty and staff.

For your research, it is important to search many places.
  • First, start with the books and articles available through the Holman Library.

  • Then, If you find books and articles that the Library does NOT have access to, just request them through Interlibrary Loan.

  • Using Interlibrary Loan increases the amount of resources available to you and helps you become a more thorough researcher.

Note:
  • Books and other items that require mailing may take 1-2 weeks.

  • Articles and other digital items may arrive within 2-5 days. Use your email as your contact info and the article will be sent directly to you.

If you need help filling out this form, call the library reference desk at (253) 931-6480.

Other places you can search...

Use the links below to look for books, articles and more beyond our collection:

Scholarly e-book

Searching for books and ebooks

Holman Library has books on authors, literary movements, themes in literature, and more. Search for essay collections, as well as for works on a specific author, work of literature, or idea.

To find scholarly criticism, try adding the keyword: criticism or the subject term: literary criticism.

As always, try a range of search terms to find the best results for your purpose.

Here is a scholarly electronic book found in the Holman Library catalog with the search terms:

"Langston Hughes" AND criticism

Step 1: The Book Record

Clues this is a scholarly work: This is an edited work by an academic press. The Subject is: Criticism and Interpretation. It includes a bibliography.

screenshot showing bibliographic info about a book

Step 2: 

Clues this is a scholarly work: The author(s) has academic credentials.

screenshot of an article

Step 3: 

Clues this is a scholarly work: The author engages substantively with the text and with the ideas of other scholars. 

 

screenshot of an article

Scholarly Books

Scholarly Books

Books can be scholarly too! How can you tell? 

A scholarly book will: 

  • Be written by an expert or experts in the field (PH.D., M.D., etc)

  • Usually present new research or analysis of previous research

  • Offer sustained, sophisticated, and in-depth analysis and discussion

  • Often be printed by a University Press

  • Not be written for popular audiences

  • Include extensive references to other scholarly work

Searching for scholarly books

While you can limit a search for articles to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals, you cannot do the same with books. 

You can, however, use the library’s online catalog to look for scholarly books: 

  • Read the record for the author and publisher. Are the credentials academic?

  • Many of our scholarly books are ebooks. That gives you a chance to assess if the book is scholarly!

  • Most of the world’s library catalogs are available at www.worldcat.org
  • Use WorldCat to search for scholarly books we don't have at Holman Library. Use InterLibrary Loan to borrow scholarly books and articles from other libraries. You can also look online at what's available at local universities like PLU, UPS, UW, UW Tacoma, etc