The library houses many more volumes of botanical nature than those that are labeled as purchased with the Hocking Endowment Fund. Here are a few of the ways to identify them.
One of the primary methods to identify materials in the library is to search the catalog. Be sure that you are searching the catalog, and not everything -- which will result in many more results like articles. The library catalog is accessible in a few different ways, including the steps below.
1.) Navigate to the library website in your web browser: https://www.lib.utexas.edu/
2.) Click the icon below the search box that reads, Books & Media. You are now able to search the library catalog.
3.) There should be a link to the advanced search, if you desire that precision.
Searching in the catalog can be easy, but it can also be tricky if you aren't certain which words to use. If you are looking for floristic texts, I recommend trying the following terms one at a time as subjects. Other terms may be more helpful depending on your search.
If you are searching for a floristic texts of the country India, you might try a search with the subject set to plants and on the next line type in India -- leave the field set to Any Field.
Click here to go to the search
One important aspect of the library is its organizational system. The Life Science Library, as with most libraries on the UT Austin campus, is organized using the Library of Congress call number system. Within this system, certain letter combinations at the beginning of the call number will tell not only its general location in relation to other materials in the library, but will also tell you something of the topic of the book. The two letter code QK is the code for botany. If you find a book that you want to look at, going to grab it from the shelves will give you the opportunity to physically browse other materials around it, with will on similar botanical topics.
You can also simulate this browsing experience in a virtual environment. When looking at a particular book in the catalog you can make sure you've opened the item (so you are looking at a page for that particular book) and then scroll down to the bottom. There will be a virtual browse feature at the bottom of the page. This will illustrate and provide links to materials that are near to the current book in the Library of Congress call number order. There are a few notes to keep in mind when using this feature. First, it usually will not contain electronic books, and we have many electronic books now. Meaning, if you use only this method, you may miss out on some excellent materials. Second, because this catalog is across the UT Library system, you may find items that are not located at the Life Science Library.
Most of the materials purchased using the Hocking Endowment Funds prior to 2015 have a local note affixed to their record. This makes them easy to identify using the library catalog. Follow the steps below to identify this set of resources.
1.) Using the library catalog, navigate to the advanced search.
2.) Select the Local Notes field from the drop down menu.
3.) Search for "George M. Hocking Fund for the Collection of Floristic Books."
This search strategy will result in all of the books collected using this endowment prior to 2019.
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