Library hours of each branch library.

Other general information, such as Driving Directions, and the Staff Directory.

Check your account to see what you have checked out and when items are due.

If you are a UK student there are a number of Research Guides created specifically for you and organized by subject. There are also guides tailored for individual courses.

Library services are not limited only to those associated with UK (students, faculty, and staff). There are many services offered to the general community as well. If you plan to do research while on campus, start with On Campus Research.

Start here if you plan to do Off Campus Research.

Non-UK patrons may get a Special Borrower's card at any of the UK libraries if they are 18 years of age and show either a valid Kentucky driver's license, a valid Kentucky non-driver's ID card, an active student or faculty/staff ID from an approved reciprocal college, or a UK alumni card. Find more information about borrowing library materials.

Young Library Loan Periods   
Books    Bound Periodicals    Unbound Periodicals    Non-Print (see AV Services for exceptions)    Reserves    Item Limit   
Non-UK Borrowers   
28 days    Library Use    Library Use    Library Use    2 hrs.; 1 day; 3 days, 7 days    25 items   

For other UK Libraries' loan periods, see Loan Periods by Location.

You may visit any campus library to check out or make reproductions of materials.  Storage facilities are not open to the public, but material may be retrieved through the Book Express Service. 

Materials located in UK Libraries may be requested though your local library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.  Through that service you may request the loan of an item(s) from circulating collections, or copies/scans of journal articles, etc.  UK’s ILL Lending policies may be given to your local library staff for information on borrowing material through this process.

Not finding what you want? Call, email, chat with or visit a UK Reference Librarian who will be glad to help you.

Ask-a-Librarian

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Genealogy research is a more specific type of research that uses a different set of databases. Use the following resources to get started with genealogy.

Visitors to UK Libraries are welcome to use public computers and have access to many of the same resources available to UK students and faculty. Anyone on campus has access to electronic resources and may look through the paper resources.

InfoKat is the online public catalog for UK and will let you search for books, journals, videos, and more. If you want help learning how to search InfoKat, go to the Searching InfoKat tab.

Use the Getting Started with Research tab to learn general search strategies.

Genealogy research is a more specific type of research that uses a different set of databases. Use the following resources to get started with genealogy.

Listed below are a few reliable resources that are free resources on the web. They are good places to get started with general research.

If you have more specific research needs that are not being met with the listed resources here or within the UK Libraries website, we suggest utilizing your local public library reference staff and interlibrary loan services. 

Identify keywords by scanning:

• the main points of your question
• encyclopedias or bibliographies found at the end of a book or article
• a thesaurus for synonyms

Video used with permission from Cooperative Library Instruction Project under Creative Commons license cc-by-nc-sa.

The easiest way to search for information electronically is to enter a couple of keywords into the search box and see what type of results you get. This strategy, however, will often result in too few, too many, or irrelevant results.

In order to retrieve the most relevant results, you will need to construct a search string: a combination of keywords, truncation symbols, and boolean operators (see below) you enter into the search box of an electronic library resource or an Internet search engine.

Truncation or wildcard symbols can broaden your search and allow you to look for word variations. For example, searching sport* would bring up variations such as sport, sports, sporting, sporty, etc. 

Note: The truncation symbol varies depending on the electronic resource you are searching. For more information, consult the database’s “help” or “search tips” pages.

Boolean searching is the traditional way to search for information in most online databases and on the Internet. Boolean operators or connector words, such as AND, OR, and NOT, are used to create phrases and concepts based on specific rules of search logic.  

Operator    Examples    Results   
AND   

business AND ethics
cookery AND Spain

Retrieves records that contain    
ALL of the search terms.   
OR   

hotels OR motels
www OR world wide web
theater OR theatre

Retrieves records that contain
ANY of the search terms but
does not necessarily include
all of them.   
NOT   

java NOT coffee
Clinton NOT (William OR Bill)    

Excludes records containing
the second search term.   

The UK Libraries arranges books by Library of Congress (LC) call number so that materials on similar subjects are shelved together. LC call numbers consist of letters and numbers and are arranged on the shelves in alphabetical then numerical order (see the box on the lower right side of this page).

If Young Library is the location, check the Young Library stacks map to determine the floor and wing for each call number. The P call numbers (language and literature) are split between the 4th floor and 5th floor.

If a book is located in another campus library, be sure to note the library location and call number. Check the map of the libraries locations and the hours for each library.

Call Number Explained

Google can be a really great resource for research. It's important to remember that Google doesn't index and have access to everything. Use some of the basic tips for searching to get the most out of Google.

The information in the box to the right has been edited for lenght but is taken from the Google website. See their full list of basic search help.

The following information is borrowed and edited from Google's Search Help Basics.

Some Basic Facts

• Every word matters. Generally, all the words you put into a query will be used.
• Search is always case insensitive. A search for [new york times] is the same as a search for [New York Times]
• Generally, punctuation is ignored, including @#$%^&*()+=[]\ and other special characters.

Tips for Better Searches

• Keep it simple. If you're looking for a particular company, just enter its name, or as much of its name as you can recall. If you're looking for aparticular concept, place, or product, start with its name. If you're looking for a pizza restaurant, just enter pizza and the name of your town or your zip code. Most queries do not require advanced operators or unusual syntax. Simple is good.

Think how the page you are looking for will be written. A search engine is not human, it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web. Use the words that are most likely to appear on the page. For example, the query [in what country are bats considered an omen of good luck?] is very clear to a person, but the document tha tgives the answer may not have those words. Instead, use the query [bats are considered good luck in] or even just [bats good luck], because that is probably what the right page will say.

Describe what you need with as few terms as possible. The goal of each word in a query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits the results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information. The main advantage to starting with fewer keywords is that, if you don't get what you need, the results will likely give you a good indication of what aditional wors are needed to refine your results on the next search. For example, [weather cancun] is a simple way to find the weather and it is likely to give better results that the longer [weather report for cancun mexico].

Choose descriptive words. The more unique the word is the more likely you ar eto get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, like 'document,' 'website,' 'company,' or 'info,' are usually not needed. Keep in mind, however, that that even if the word had the correct meaning but it is not the one most people use, it may not match the pages you need. For example, [celebrity ringtones] is more descriptive and specific than [celebrity sounds].