Skip to Main Content
PolyU Library

Building & Real Estate

Your starting point for research and study in the area of building & real estate.

Find Books

Find Books from OneSearch

The quickest way to find books is through a direct search in OneSearch. You may search by Keywords, Title of the Book, Call Number, or an ISBN number. Follow the steps below:

  1. Visit Library homepage OneSearch. Type in your keywords or title of the book and hit the search button. 
  2. Limit results to "Books" under Resource Type on the right panel of the page. You may further refine results to "Physical items" (which means print books only), or "Full Text Online" (which means e-books only). For books with multiple versions, you can click to see all versions.
  3. Click on the book title to see more information about the book. 
    For e-books, click on the link provided and sign in with your NetID and NetPassword to get access to the full text of the book. 
    For print books, check if the book is currently available to loan. Click "Location" to see which floor the book is located on. The book is sorted by its Call Number on the bookshelf. Check it out using our self-help machine or at the Service Counter on P/F.

Look for Course Readings?

Option 1. Go to your course page at Learn@PolyU and click on "Resource List" from the left menu.

Option 2. Go to the library homepage and search under "Course Resource List".

Video Tutorial

Watch this video tutorial to learn how to quickly find your course readings.

How to Read an eBook?

The way to access an e-book can be different depending on the platform the book is located. Some platforms allow you to download the whole book in PDF with one click, while some allow downloading a limited number of pages per day due to copyright restrictions.

Note: To view the full text of the book, you will be prompted to login with your NetID and NetPassword, especially for off-campus access.

 

Here are a few commonly seen examples from e-book databases:

⦿ Full book download allowed. Usually, books directly offered by publishers offer full book or chapter download options.

⦿ Limited no. of pages download per day. Two major e-book providers - ProQuest and EBSCOhost- offer this option. Note that some popular books may only allow online reading. There is no limitation if you read the book online.  More details can be seen on ProQest Ebook Central and EBSCOhost eBook Collection database pages.

Other than downloading a limited no. of pages to PDF, you may also "Borrow" the whole book for a specified no. of days and read it offline after installing the Adobe Digital Editions app.

Access E-book from Ebscohost

(Link to this book on OneSearch)

⦿ PDF full download is not available. Usually, textbook providers offer this option. 

You can check out the books and read them online for a specified no. of hours.

Access e-books from VitalSource

(Link to this book on OneSearch)


Some books may allow downloading a number of pages to PDF with watermarks. 

Access e-books from VitalSource

 

What if the book you need is not available?

Try ILL

How to Place a Request:

  • Submitting requests directly via OneSearch without logon to a separate system
  • Tracking the status of the requests and downloading the requested articles or book chapters directly from myRecord
  • Submitting renewal requests directly from myRecord

How to Read a Call Number?

Each physical item is labeled with a call number, which contains both letters and numbers representing the source's location in the library, e.g., TX911 .V33 2019. Books on the same subject will be placed in the same range on bookshelves. When you search a print book through OneSearch, you will get a call number, which tells you where you can find the book.

Classification

Subject

HA30-32

Method of Statistics

HD101-1395.5

Land Use / Land Tenure

TA1-2040

Engineering-Civil & Genl.

NA2835-8480

Details and Decoration

TA1-2040

Engineering-Civil & Genl.

TH 1-9745

Building Construction / Building Trades

TS155

Operations Management

TX955-985

Building Operation and Housekeeping

TA 1-2040

Engineering-civil & Genl.

TC 1-1800

Hydraulic Engineering

TD1-1066

Hazardous Substances and their Disposal

TE 1-450

Highway Engineering

TF 1-1620

Railroad Engineering & Operation

TG 1-470

Bridge Engineering

G 1-9980

Geography

GA 1-1776

Math Geography/cartography

GB 3-5030

Physical Geography

GC 1-1581

Oceanography

GE 1-350

Environmental Sciences

GF 1-900

Human ecology/Anthropogeography

QC800-809

Geophysics, Cosmic Physics

QE 1-996

Geology

TD 1-1066

Environmental Technology

Call numbers can be divided into 4 rows:

  • The first row is simply sorted in alphabetical order.
  • The second row is sorted in numerical order.
  • The third row consists of a character and a set of numbers.
    The character is sorted in alphabetical order; The set of number is sorted as decimal numbers.
  • The last row represents the publication year, which is simply sorted by the year.

Below are some examples of the rules mentioned above:

Please note that large books which cannot be accommodated on the normal shelves (indicates with [QRT] before the call number) are kept at the end of the collection in each wing. 

 

Recommended Books to Support Literature Review