Find Books by Title
If there is a specific book you are looking for, you can use the book’s title to find it in the library through the Books & Media tab on the library homepage. Using this tab means that there will not be any journal articles in your results.
Enter the title into the tab and click “Search”. If you do not know the exact title, try searching using any of the words that you do know.
You will be taken to the results page. If the book you are looking for is in the list, click on the title to see the catalogue record.
You can use the catalogue record to determine the book’s publication information. If the book is available in print, you will also find the library branch at which the book is located, the call number, and whether the book is available, on loan, or on course reserve.
If the book you are looking for is located at another UBC campus, you can use "Order via Document Delivery" located under "Actions" on the right hand side of the catalogue record to request that the book be brought to your campus. If the book is on loan, you can use use the "Request this item: Recall/ASRS" to place a hold on the item.
For more information about finding books once you have the library branch and call number, see the “On the Shelf" page of this guide.
If a book is available electronically, the location will be listed as “Online” and you can read the book by clicking on the orange “Online Access” button.
If you are looking for a particular book that is not available at UBC Library, you can place an InterLibrary Loan request to get the book from another library. You can also suggest a book for purchase, using our "Suggest a Book" form.
Find Books by Chapter Title
You can also try searching with the title of a book chapter. You can type the title of the chapter into the Books & Media tab and click “Search.”
The chapters are listed in the “Contents” section of the catalogue record.
If you have any difficulty finding a book chapter by searching in the Books & Media tab, you can also try searching by chapter title in Summon (ie. the ‘General” search tab). It has a more complete listing of book chapters than the library catalogue.
Tip: When searching for a chapter title in Summon, put quotation marks (“ “) around the words.