To locate books in the Polk State Library, use the library's online catalog.
The catalog is on the library's web site.
Click on the link to "Catalog" and choose the campus you wish to search.
Enter your search terms and click on search.
You can limit your search by type, location, format, language, year... or leave it to search all.
Click on "Search" and you will receive a list of matching resources.
The results shown above are for a subject search for solar energy.
There are 44 resources.
The top results are the most relevant to your keywords.
The first five items are books in the Winter Haven Campus Library
that are in the circulation collection (can be checked out)
Books in the Polk State Libraries are shelved by the Library of Congress system.
If you need assistance locating materials, please ask.
Item#6 is an E-book.
Click on the title and the link to login and view the books online.
E-books are available 24/7 from any internet connected computer.
E-books are also searchable.
You may not find an entire book on your specific thesis. For example, imagine you are working on an essay about the medical hazards of body piercing. You may not find a book totally dedicated to this in the Polk State Library system... and even if you did, you probably wouldn't want or need to read the entire book cover to cover.
You would probably find books with information about the medical hazards of body piercing within them - medical reference books, books about youth issues, body decoration books... again, you wouldn't necessarily want to read the entire book. You are researching - collecting the pieces that you will use to create your work. E-books are especially nice for this because they are totally searchable.
Here is a the e-book Encyclopedia of Body Adornment and a search for hepatitis.
The search takes us directly to the pages where hepatitis is discussed.
Remember, if you don't find what you need here at Polk State Libraies,
you can request materials from other libraries - just ask.