Finding a Circulating Book

      As an advertising minor, I was asked to write a paper on non-traditional advertising. Traditional advertising includes print ads through magazines, newspapers, flyers, etc., television commercials, and radio commercials. Advertising via the Internet, cell phones, and other digital devices has become an effective way of reaching target audiences in this age of technology. Locating a book related to digital advertising was my first objective.
      Citations and in-depth information were essential to the research paper; therefore, a circulating book was more preferable than a reference book.   Also, circulating books are allowed to be "checked-out" and can leave the library, unlike reference books. To begin my search for a circulating book, I first went to the RACERtrac database website and clicked on the "Advanced" search tab. For each search I performed, I selected the "Location" to circulating collection and the "Type" to book.
      For my first search, I began by inserting "Advertising" to be found within the title into the first search box. In the second search box, I entered "non traditional" to be found as a keyword anywhere. There were not any books discovered with this particular search. But by altering my search terms, I could create a greater possibility of finding a book related to my topic. I kept the first search box the same with "Advertising" and changed "non traditional" to "digital." This search found four circulating books relevant to the search terms. The book I decided that would best correspond to my topic was Digital Advertising.  This book was also published in 2010, and therefore, would have current information on my topic.

      As an additional source, I wanted to look for a book more specific to Internet advertising. In the first search box I entered "Advertising" to be found within the title and in the second box, I entered "Internet?" to be found as a keyword anywhere. Seven results were found and I chose the book Advertising and the World Wide Web because it was very relevant and it was the only book out of the seven to be published in the 90's. This is important because although Internet advertising seems to be relatively new, it actually first began in the 90's.

     Since reference books are not allowed to leave the library, they are more likely to be available.  However, circulating books can leave the library.  After locating the book most relevant to your topic via RACERtrac, check to see if it is available.  A green check will be located below the call number if the book is available and a red "X" will show if the book is not available and  already checked-out by another person.