Introduction to the Brown University Library

The best place to get started with your research is usually the library catalog, BruKnow. It's the big search box found near the top of the library homepage. When you search BruKnow, you will be brought to a page of results, divided by format, including books and ebooks, journal articles, journal titles, media such as DVDs and streaming video, and more.

For an overview of the features of BruKnow, take a look at our new resource guide:

To find a book in the library, you'll need to know a few things:

• Whether the book is available and on the shelf.
• Which library building it's in and what floor it's on.
• Which section you must visit and the book's full call number -- a series of letters and numbers that give the book's exact location on the shelf. At Brown we use a system developed by the Library of Congress.

You can find all this information by using BruKnow! Let's look at an example:

You'll notice that the book is "Available at Sciences Library Stacks" which means it's on the shelf waiting for you. Click on the red Map It icon to find the book's location:

• The map tells you it's on Level 13 of the SciLi, in row 5B.
• Be sure to note the full call number: QL737 .R68 S56 2009
• Find the "Q" section in row 5B. Look for QL, which comes after QK and before QM. Then read the numbers on the book spines until you get to 737.
• If QL737 is a large section, go on to the next part of the call number: .R68. Once again, go through the alphabet until you get to the R section.

Note: The numbers in this second part must be read as a decimal, so .68 could come after a number like .6745, rather than simply .67.  Don't worry too much about this -- the section is usually not big enough to cause much confusion

• If necessary, go to the third part of the call number: .S56, which is also a decimal number.
• You can usually ignore the date, which makes up the final part of the call number, unless we have editions from different years.

Some additional points:

• Is there a 1-size, 2-size, or 3-size in front of a call number? These books are oversized and will be shelved separately.
• You will find the oversized section *after* the regular sized section. Then simply read the call number as you normally would.
• If a record says that it's in "Offsite Storage" rather than "Stacks", it means that it is stored off campus. Use the Request It link and the book will be returned to campus within one working day.
• If the record says "Out of Library" instead of "Stacks," use the Request from Another Library link to obtain a copy through Interlibrary Loan.
• Sound Recordings (LPs, CDs, etc), CD-Roms and DVDS are shelved in restricted areas at the Orwig Music Library. Ask staff at the Orwig circulation desk to retrieve items or use the Request Item link in BruKnow to pick up your requests later.
• You cannot get Special Collections (John Hay Library, John Carter Brown Library) books from the shelf yourself. See the Special Collections tab on this guide for information on how to look at this material..

One other thing: there should be light switches at the end of the stacks, so you don't need to use your cell phone flashlight to find a book!

You can easily search for ebooks by simply clicking on the Ebooks button beneath the search box of our discovery tool BruKnow as it appears on the library homepage. Or you can filter your results to show you only ebooks after you have carried out a search.