Skip to Main Content

CO 104 - Public Communication: Books and DVDs

A guide for students working on their final project.

How to Locate Items

Primo, the C-GCC catalog, is a powerful tool to quickly locate the items you need for your research. Every book, DVD or audiobook owned by the library is in the catalog, and every item in the catalog has a record.

From the library's home page, click on the search box underneath the word Primo. Type in your search term and click the Search box. HINT: To search for a biography of a person, use quotation marks ("Alexander the Great").

A menu will appear giving you a selection of options. For books owned by the library, select Library Catalog.

You wll likely get dozens of results. These results include, ebooks, and items the library owns, like books, DVDs, and audiobooks (books on CD). To filter the results to items the library owns, go to Refine Your Results on the right side of the screen. Under the dropdown menu Availability, click on Held by Library. Then click Apply Filters. This should significantly narrow your results.

If you are looking for a DVD, audiobook, or reference book, click on Location and select DVD, CGCC Audio, or Reference. 

You can further narrow your results by clicking on Subject. You will see a list of subjects with a number showing how many items there are. Choose as many subjects as you like, and click Apply Filters. 

If you're searching for a DVD, click on the Advanced Search feature. Below the search boxes are ways to limit your search. Click on the dropdown menu and scroll down to Video/Film. Put in your search term(s) in the search boxes and click Search.

Primo video tutorial

The following video will teach you how to search for books using Primo, our catalog. 

Catalog Notations

All items in our catalog have a call number on them (PZ4 .A13 2007, for example). Others may have other letters in front of the letters that begin a call number. Those are codes denoting a specific collection. Here's what the codes mean:

  • CIRMC - The book is part of our McNaughton Collection, a collection of current popular fiction. These books are located on the first floor.
  • JUV - The book is part of our juvenile collection. These are located on the first floor.
  • LOCAL - This collection includes selected local history items and books that librarians have deemed "rare." These books are kept in a locked cabinet in our local history room and are library use only. See a staff member to use.
  • MEDAU - This is an audiobook (book on CD). These are located on the first floor.
  • MEDVD - This denotes a DVD. These are located on the first floor across from the juvenile collection.
  • REF - A reference book. These can only be used in the library and are located on the second floor across from the Olana Study Corner.
  • YABKS - A book in our Young Adult collection. This collection is mostly fiction titles, with some nonfiction. This collection is located on the library's first floor.