Journal Cite Checking Guide: Books

The LUC Library Catalog is where you'll find a record of every book, e-book, set of books, and journal (by title) in LUC libraries.  The Library Catalog also provides access to many but not all titles that LUC provides access to via subscription databases.

If you are looking to see if Loyola has a particular book, the best way to search is to click on the Advanced Search link below the search box. That will take you to the Advanced Search screen, Once there, choose 'Title' from the first drop-down box and enter either the exact book title or pertinent keywords.  Make sure that you are searching under the "Books, Articles & More" tab to ensure that you search all LUC libraries.

Advanced Search

1. Search the Library Catalog
   The first place to look to locate a book needed for sourcing or cite-checking is the LUC Library Catalog.  The Catalog includes a record of titles from all of Loyola's campuses as well as available Ebooks.  An item record will tell you the call number, which library or libraries owns the book and whether or not the book is checked out.  If the book is located in another library, you can "request" the book and have it delivered to the Law Library. You'll receive an e-mail alert when the Law Library has received the book.
    
2. WorldCat
   If a book is not owned by LUC Libraries then your next step is to search for the book via WorldCat which is a catalog of books and materials worldwide.  You can restrict your search to the 'Title' field. Once you locate the record for the book, click on its link. Doing so should reveal the full catalog record for the title. To request a copy of the book from another library, scroll down and click on the Request from another library' link. This will launch ILLIAD which is Loyola's interlibrary loan service.  For more information on ordering books via interlibrary loan, go to the law library logistics page in this Guide.
    
3. Google Books and Other Digital Repositories
   Through its Google Books project, Google has scanned more than 30 million books into its database; It may be possible to locate an otherwise hard-to-find edition there.  If the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given Google permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF copy. But, proceed with caution.  Because Google uses OCR scanning, there may be errors.  Another digital repository to check is Hathi Trust . This repository is a partnership of academic and research institutions. To date it holds more than 10 million titles. Loyola is not a partner of the Trust though, so you may see a limited part of a book and not be able to access the full-text.  Finally, through its digital scanning and archiving initiative, the Internet Archive has amassed more than 6 million public domain books, more than 4 million of which are in english.
    
4. Ask a Reference Librarian
   If you can't find a book using your own resources, feel free to contact one of the reference librarians We have many resources that go beyond the scope of this research guide.

Address

Loyola University Chicago
School of Law Library 
Philip H. Corboy Law Center
25 E. Pearson Street
Chicago, IL 60611

Email

Access and borrowing questions:
Law-Library@luc.edu
Research questions: LoyolaLawReference@luc.edu

Phone Numbers

Main:  312.915.7200
Circulation:  312.915.6986
Reference:  312.915.7205
Interlibrary Loan:  312.915.7202
Fax:  312.915.6797