Applied Humanities: Books, E-books and Reference

Your first stop to find books and e-books is our library catalogue.

The catalogue will tell you:

• whether we have an e-book or a print book
• where you can find a print book on our shelves using the shelfmark
• how many copies we have and - if they’re out on loan - when they’re due back

To only see e-books in your search results, choose ‘Refine your search options’ (may display as + on some devices) then choose ‘Internet’ under ‘Library Location’.

When you’re connecting to an e-book you may need to log into OpenAthens before you can open it.

As Applied Humanities students, you will use resources from all areas of the Library. We organise our printed resources using the Dewey Decimal system.

When you search for a book on the catalogue, you will see its Dewey Decimal number. You can search for other books with the same number - meaning they share the same or very similar subject matter - by searching the catalogue using the following code:

class:([dewey number]*)

For example: some* books about colonialism have the Dewey Decimal number 325.3. You can find further books on this subject (and subjects within it) by searching for:

class:(325.3*)

* Not all books that deal with a subject will have the same Dewey Decimal number. Some may be classified elsewhere because they look at the subject from a different perspective. For example, colonial and postcolonial literature and criticism will have a dewey number in the 800s.

Encyclopaedias, dictionaries, handbooks and other reference sources can help you find your way into your assignment reading or research. They're also great if you need a quick definition or an overview of a subject.

Printed reference sources

Many of these sources are in our Reference section on level 1 of the library.

Online reference sources

Links and search boxes for our key online reference sources are available below. If you are not on campus, you may need to sign in to OpenAthens to use these resources.

If you're looking for an introduction to a new topic, or a fresh perspective, then Cambridge Companions could be what you need. There are Cambridge Companions to over 600 subjects and leading thinkers in Literature, Culture, Philosophy and Religion available to Newman Students.

You can explore the collection directly on the Cambridge Companions website, or search the catalogue (using 'Newman catalogue' inthe drop-down box) for a key word and "Cambridge Companion".

The gallery below shows a very small selection of the titles on offer that may be relevant to Applied Humanities students!