Use local and distance library services effectively

Learning Objectives

This learning resource aims to introduce you to the library resources which you may need to access in the course of your studies at Otago Polytechnic.

• Closed reserve - textbooks
• Other books related to your subject area
• Interloan
• Research

Introduction

The Bill Robertson Library has copies of all of your textbooks, and other books relevant to your subject. However it’s quite possible that you might come across a book that you would like to refer to which is not held in the Bill Robertson Library.

Closed Reserve

A copy of each of your required texts sits behind the desk at the Bill Robertson Library. Each of these texts can be taken out from the reserve section for a short period of time (several hours). To take them out, go to the reserve desk and state that you would like a book from the massage therapy reserve list, then name the book and the author.

Searching the library catalogue

Libraries all have electronic catalogues which may or may not be searchable online. When searching you can typically choose to search according to

• Keyword searches - typically search for the word within the catalogue entry.
• Title
• Author
• Subject

In the Bill Robertson Library, you can choose a basic search, guided search, or course reserve search. The basic search is probably the easiest to use for most things. This functions much like the search functions of other libraries except that you can limit the items found in the search to specific categories of items (e.g. journals).

Try It

Go to the online search, and try to find

• A book which is of interest to you
• One of your course texts

Interloan

When you would like to read a book or an article, but cannot find it within the Bill Robertson Library, this book or article may be sourced for you free of charge from anywhere within Australasia via the Interloan system.

To order an article through interloan, click here.

Research

A number of research databases are available through the Bill Robertson Library. You will be introduced to their use in your second year of study.