How can you tell of a book is an academic source? One of the quickest and easiest ways is to check the publisher. Academic books are published by a university press or a specialized publisher. Here are a few examples of specialized academic publishers:
Books are a great resource to use when searching for general information on a topic. They are useful for understanding a topic in its context and provide summaries of existing research as well as offer a historical perspective.
Books are best found using the Omni, and then narrowing results to McMaster Libraries (Catalogue Only), or by selecting Books under the Resource Type.
Scholarly books are a great resource - watch this video to learn how to recognize one. (2:29)
This video explains how to enter keywords into the catalogue to find books on a particular topic. (1:13)
This video shows you how to search by book title using the library catalogue. (0:47)