The Beginning
Of all the conventional sources we use today, books are the oldest. The first books came into existence long before other types of sources, and their abundance greatly increased after the invention of the printing press, first in China, then later in Europe in 1450.
Fiction, poetry, and plays are all published in books, and their main purpose is to entertain and/or offer nuanced insights into the human condition and, in some cases, to educate and inform. Fiction, poetry, and plays are also studied by scholars for the social and cultural insights they provide.
The purpose of non-fiction books, on the other hand, is pretty much just to inform – and it is these sorts of books that we will discuss on this page.
When you need to be informed about something and you need it explained in-depth, that's when you'd reach for a non-fiction book.
For example, suppose you wanted to learn more about the history of decolonization in Africa. You might read non-fiction books, like these:
Or, suppose you were interested in environmental conservation. In that case, the books shown below might interest you.
You can tell from the titles of these books that they span a broad topic and cover it comprehensively. If you read them, you'd have a thorough overview of these topics. However, people don't always read non-fiction books from cover to cover like they do fiction books. With non-fiction books, often you dip in and find just the information you need, using either the table of contents at the beginning of the book or the index at the end of the book.
Take another look at the environmental conservation books shown above. Notice how that first one is written for a fairly general audience; it's directed at anyone who might be interested in nature. That second book, though, is written for specialists in the field of ecology and nature conservation. So the intended audience for a book might be fairly general, or more specialized.
Let's look at some different types of books!
Popular books
Popular books explain ideas, concepts, or history to the non-expert with the aim to inform, but in a way that is captivating and entertaining – like these books:
Scholarly books
Scholarly books – also known as academic books – comprehensively examine a particular research topic to inform. You may also hear scholarly books referred to as academic books, or you may hear them called monographs (a monograph is a thorough examination of a particular subject).
Unlike popular books, scholarly books are not written for general consumption. Instead, their main audience is other scholars and experts, or anyone wanting to develop expertise on a topic, such as undergraduate or graduate students.
Textbooks
Like scholarly books, textbooks comprehensively examine a particular topic, but with the specific goal of educating the reader. To that end, they often include learning objectives, study questions, vocabulary words in bold, and other features designed to facilitate learning. Many college courses require you to buy and read textbooks
Reference books
Reference books are a bit different because their purpose is not to explain a topic. Instead, they contain information like facts, definitions, measurements, procedures, etc. that you'd look up and refer to, which is why they're called reference books. The most familiar examples include: dictionaries, encyclopedias, manuals, handbooks, field guides, atlases, etc.
Nowadays, it's common to use Google and/or Wikipedia to look up word definitions and encyclopedia-type information, rather than using print dictionaries and encyclopedias. In fact, an enormous amount of reference information that used to only be available in traditional print books is now quick and easy to find with a Google search. But not everything!
Books are great....but less current.
Since the purpose of a book is to comprehensively explain a topic over many pages, books take longer to write than other types of sources. Anything that takes longer to write may contain information that becomes outdated before it is even published.
So, books are usually considered less current than many other types of information sources.
Books formats: print and electronic
Books come in two formats. The print format refers to the physical copy which is printed on paper. You probably already know that books in print format are available from bookstores such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Libraries buy lots of print books as well, so you can go to NAU Yuma's campus library (AWC/NAU Academic Library) to borrow books for free.
A growing number of books are also available in an electronic format and called e-books or online books. There are several rather confusing varieties of e-books. Some, like those available from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, can be purchased by anyone and read on e-reader software, like Kindle or Nook. These e-books are simply electronic versions of books that can also be purchased in their print form. Other e-books are freely available on the internet. And, last but not least, libraries provide access to lots of e-books, especially reference books and scholarly books.
Locating a specific book
What if there's a specific book you want to find? Most campus libraries (including Cline Library) offer a discovery tool on their home page which you can use for finding books. The discovery tool is usually represented by a search box. At NAU's Cline Library, the discovery tool is called "Quick Search."
Suppose you wanted to find the book: Origin and Early Evolution of the Metazoa. Just enter your search directly into the Quick Search box. Then, if the library has this book, you may find it at or near the top of your results, like this:
You can see from these four results that libraries provide books in either print format or electronic format (and sometimes both). For example, the book you are looking for (the top result) is in print, as indicated by the fact that it has a physical location in the library ('Book Stacks') and it has a call number: QE721.2.E85.75 1992. 'Book stacks' just means the shelves in the library, and the call number is the book's address on the shelf. Below is that same book on the shelf, with arrows pointing to its address (a.k.a. call number):
Notice that the other three books that appeared in your search results don't have a physical location or call number, but rather a link that says 'FullText@NAU.' That's because these are e-books rather than print books. To access them, you'd just click the link to FullText@NAU and then you could read the book in its electronic form.
If you conducted a search for a book in Quick Search and you didn't find it at or near the top of your results, then try looking to the left of your results for ways to Limit My Results. Then, try limiting to Books as a Material Type.
If you still can't find what you need, or - if you find the book you need but you are not sure how to find it on the shelves in the library, or the link to full-text access isn't working, then ask library staff for help.
The easiest and quickest way to get help is by using the Chat service found on the Cline Library's home page.
Browsing for books on a topic
Suppose that instead of looking for a particular book, you are looking for books on a topic. Just enter your topic into Quick Search. For example, to the right you see a search for books on the topic of African American literature.
Then, once you run your search and get results, look to the left of your results and limit to books as a Material Type, like you just learned to do further up on this page. When you get your results, they will all be books!
Distinguishing books from other sources
It's easy to distinguish a print book from other types of sources – they're usually thicker and have a heavier front and back cover. However, it can be less easy to distinguish an e-book from other types of sources. Here are a couple of things to look for:
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Check the title for "bookiness." Typically book titles indicate that you'll get comprehensive coverage of a topic, like in this example:
- Moaveni, S. (2015). Engineering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Engineering. Cengage Learning.
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Look to see if the source is presented in an interface that allows you to page forward or backward and/or navigate to particular chapters.
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Look for a digitized version of the same front cover and title page that a print book would have.
