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UMass Lowell Library Guide for Faculty

Library Collections Basics

 

Highlights from the library home page

  • Use the Catalog to find books
  • Use Article Quick Search to find articles
  • Use Publication Finder for journals
  • Use Databases A-Z for databases
  • Use the Catalog and Databases (search both!) to find videos. Use the media databases Films on Demand, Kanopy, and AVON 

See more details on each type of resource below, and contact us with any questions.

Working with Books

We purchase both print and ebooks. Some tips:

  • The default search from the catalog on the home page is "libraries everywhere". This will show you books at other libraries that you can request by InterLibrary Loan.
  • Select UMass Lowell as a filter if you only want to see items we own
  • Select ebooks if you only want to see online books

 

Working with Articles

If you already know the title and author of your article, there are two ways to find the full text of the PDF.  

  • Often the quickest way to find the full text PDF is through Article Quick Search on the library's home page
  • But you can check our detailed journal holdings (what years we have of each journal) from the Journal by Title search

Working with Journals

We purchase electronic journals and newspapers, and have large print runs of older journals in both libraries.

Your most pressing question might be: do we have Nature, or PMLA, or your favorite journal? To check:

  • Use the Publication Finder search on the library's home page to see what we have online
  • Use the Catalog and limit to UMass Lowell holdings to see what we have in print

Working with Videos

The catalog lists many, but not all, of our video titles. We have many films on DVD as well as streaming media. To find out what we have, check:

  • The Catalog for DVDs and some streaming media
  • Kanopy, fiction and feature films plus educational films and documentaries from major distributors like Criterion Collection and Media Education Foundation
  • AVON (Academic Video Online), educational films and documentaries from major distributors like PBS, Film Platform, and Sony Pictures Classics
  • Films on Demand, educational films and documentaries from major distributors like BBC Worldwide Learning, California Newsreel, and PBS NewsHour
  • Don't see what you're looking for? Please submit a request! Many films can be quickly sourced from our vendors.

What If We Don't Have It?

 

InterLibrary Loan (ILL)

 

ILL is a top service for faculty at any library. This service is free to you. If we don't own a book, article, or video, we will see if another library can lend it to us for a short time.

To find out what we have, please first check our:

  • Catalog for books and videos
  • Journal by Title for journals
  • Article Quick Search for articles.

If we don't have it, use InterLIbrary Loan!

Request a Purchase

 

To find out what we have, please first check our catalog for books and videos, journal finder for journals, and article search for articles.

If we don't have it

Find Full Text PDFs at the Library Website

If you already have a citation, the quickest way to see if we own an article is to use our Article QuickSearch on our home page.

  • Type in the full article title and the author's last name
  • The system should find a record for that article
  • Look in the upper-left corner for either an immediate PDF link, or a "Find Full Text" link that will check library holdings for you

Find Full Text PDFs Wherever You Go

LibKey Nomad is a browser plugin that can help you find full text to resources the library owns, even when you're not on the library website. First install the plugin. Then whenever you search on the web, you'll be notified when the library subscribes to an article or book. If the library doesn't have access to the full text, it's an easy click to request via ILL.