Youth Literature

From the UT Libraries' homepage, use the main search box to add keywords for the author, title or topic of the books you're looking for. 

You'll see results from across our entire collection, both print and online. Use the limiters along the left to narrow your results by "Location in Library" and choose these locations for our youth collections:

• Perry-Castañeda Library - Youth Collection, PCL Stacks 6S
• Benson Latin American Collection - Juvenile (English)
• Benson Latin American Collection,- Juvenile (Spanish)

You may also want to limit by Resource Type (choose Books), Language or Creation Date. I recommend using the main search bar for subject and author terms, rather than using those limiters along the left.

Write down or take a picture of the call number for the books you'd like to find in our stacks.

Once you have the call numbers in hand, head to the 6th floor of PCL, section S (map). You'll see that the Youth Collection call numbers range from A to Z. It covers all the same subjects as our main stacks, but only includes materials for children and young adults.

On the book spines, the call numbers are presented vertically. Go line-by-line to find your book. In this example...

• First, find the PZ's (on the shelf after PV, PW, PX, PY, etc).
• Then you'll look for PZ 7 (shelved after PZ 1, PZ 2, etc.).
• Once you've found the PZ 7's, move onto the 3rd line. You'll see books that start with PZ 7 A, PZ 7 B, etc. Keep going up until you find the PZ 7 P section and look for P3856 (which will be shelved between PZ 7 P37 and PZ 7 P39. 

Be patient and just keep taking one line at a time!

When you find a book in our collection that you'd like to check out, you can use our Pick it Up service to have the item placed on hold for you in PCL. This is also the process to recall a book that is currently checked out. Just follow these steps...

1) Find the item in our Library Catalog and click on the title to see the full record.

2) Make sure you're signed in with your EID  

3) Follow the "Pick It Up" link, choose Perry Castañeda Library, choose Semeter Loan, and click the "Send Request" button. You'll receive an email from us when the item is ready for you. This may take 1-2 business days.        

So many children's books are published each year, and we can't buy them all! If you need a book we don't own, we'll do our best to borrow a copy for you from another library. 

From the main library site, look under "Find, Borrow, Request" and follow the Request from Another Library (Interlibrary Loan) link. You may have to register if you haven't used this service before.

From there, click the orange "Request item" button and fill out the book request form with as much detail as possible. We'll reach out to you when the book is ready to be picked up. This typically takes 5-10 days, so plan ahead!

We also welcome purchase suggestions for our Youth Collections! Turnaround time for purchases is a bit slower, so you may still want to use ILL while you're waiting for a purchase to arrive. Just follow the Suggest a Purchase link as seen above.

Your local public library will also likely have a robust collection of youth books and eBooks. If you don't have a library card, get one! Ask to get set up to use their databases and eBooks from home too! You'll find some Austin Public Library tips below, and other cities will have similar options.

Search the APL Library Catalog to for the title of the book you need. You'll see which formats they own (print book, eBook, audiobook, etc) and which copies are currently available. From there, you can check out available electronic copies, place pick-up requests for print items and join the waitlist for items that are in use.

Is there something you'd like to see added to our Youth Collections? Please suggest a purchase!