Common Read -- Picking Cotton: Find Books

This page will help you locate books and information in books.

  There are several options for locating print and electronic books.

First, you may search the CUNY+ Online Catalog to find books, multimedia materials, and other resources. (See the demonstration below.)  You may limit your search to Queensborough, or include all of the CUNY libraries.  Both paper and digital versions of books are accessible through this catalog.

One collection of books in digital format, (electronic books that may be read on a computer) is eBrary - These e-books may be located through CUNY+.  With a CUNY ID Card you can access your library’s eContent 24 hours a days, seven days a week.

  Another e-book collection may be accessed through Netlibrary - This contains many books that have been purchased in a digitized format, as well as a number of works in the public domain. Please note that to access this database from off campus, you must first create an account on campus.

Books in print format that are not available at the QCC Library may be ordered from the circulating collections of other CUNY libraries through  CLICS -(CUNY  Libraries Intra Campus Delivery Services).  This service may be used by CUNY students, faculty and staff.  When requested materials arrive at the QCC Library, patrons are notified via school e-mail accounts. Books also may be returned to the QCC Library, which will facilitate their delivery to the home Library.

When students, faculty or staff require library materials that are not owned by any CUNY Library, the ILLiad service may be utilized for Interlibrary Loan.

Another search tool that the QCC community may use is Worldcat , an international catalog which can locate a book in any library in the world.

 Use the online CATALOG to find a book by topic. The best way to search is by "ALL FIELDS," using "KEY WORDS joined by the word,"and."  For literary criticism of a particular work, use the author's last name, an important word from the title, and the word "criticism."  For example, for criticism of  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, type  "Lee and mockingbird and criticism."