The MSKCC Library offers a mix of print and online books. Although some current books can be found on the shelves at the Library, our users should be aware that the most recent editions of many of the books on our shelves may be offered only online by the Library. Online books, as with all electronic resources, can be accessed on any of the MSKCC computers as well as remotely (via the VPN or by logging in as a remote user). While one can find print books by both browsing shelves at the Library or using ONESEARCH (search box) located on the Library homepage, e-books can be found only via ONESEARCH.

To find individual e-books, type the book information in the ONESEARCH box on the Library homepage. You can use the default search box (what is typically called Basic Search) or you can use Advanced Search for more precision.

Basic Search

If you’re looking for a specific book, you can enter the book’s title/partial title as a phrase (use double quotes to make the results more precise) or a mix of search terms, including Author, Title, Subject words into the basic search box located under ONESEARCH on the library’s website.

• To get books or book chapters, look at the Refine My Results > Content Type on the left-hand pane of the screen. You will see the break down of your search results by publication format with the number of results for each format in parentheses.
• If you don’t see Books or Book Chapters as a filter, click on Show More to see the rest of the list. The results will include separate listings for books and book chapters.
• You may want to click on Sort By and use the drop down menu to re-sort the results by Date, Author and Title.

Advanced Search

Advanced Search allows you to enter more precise information about the book.

• Use the Search Scope drop down menu to limit to Books and More (will retrieve whole items, such as books (but not book chapters), journals (but not journal articles) and databases.
• Use the Any Field drop down menu to limit to Any Field or Title or Author/Creator or Subject. Please note that the title can be an individual book title or a series title (e.g., Methods in Molecular Biology). Don’t use the Material Type drop down menu on the right hand side.
• If needed, keep clicking on an Add a New Line to add more search boxes and choose different fields, typing relevant information in the boxes (using the Contains drop down box to enter search terms in any order, or as an exact phrase, etc.). Then use an AND between the boxes to combine search terms in different fields for most precision.
• On the left hand pane under Refine My Results, click on Books under the Content Type.
• Once in the search results filtered by Books, find print (Available in the Library) and e-books (Full Text Online) on the left hand pane under Refine My Results > Availability.

Note: Some books found via ONESEARCH actually belong in e-book collections, such as Stat!Ref, which may have additional materials and features.

Should you need any help or have any questions, don’t hesitate to ASK US!