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Fashion Studies

Finding Books

When looking for a book or eBook, use the search bar on The New School Libraries website
Some tips & tricks for searching are:
  • Simple Search results contain all the words used. These may match words in a title, author names, subjects, abstract, or other fields.
  • Advanced Search pre-limits a search to specific fields, material types, and publication dates
  • The asterisk (*) can be truncate a word. [octop* = octopuses, octopi, octopods, octopodes]
  • Enclosing a search in quotes (" ") returns results that are an exact match ["happy birthday"].
  • Boolean Logic is supported.- Use precision search queries such as AND, OR and NOT.
    • "honey bee communication" – the library catalog treats the entire query as an exact phrase.
    • '"Honey bee" AND communication' will garner results with the phrase "honey bee" and the word communication, but not as a phrase.
    • '"Honey bee" OR communication' will show all results with the phrase "honey bee," all results with the word 'communication,' and all results with both.
    • 'Programmers NOT php' retrieves all items which have the word 'programmers', but will filter/remove results containing the term 'php'.
To look for a specific book, go to The New School Libraries website & type in the title of the book in the search bar.

You will find your book on the results page. You may even find multiple versions of the same book! But be careful -- some of these results may be book reviews rather than the actual book itself.

Click on the title of the edition you want to find to learn which library the book is in, to see if it's available electronically, or to request it from another library!

To browse for books in the library catalog, go to The New School Libraries website & type the subject you would like to study in the search bar.

On the results page, you'll find books, articles, audio, video, and much more related to your subject!

On the left-hand side, you can narrow down your results by topics such as resource type, library location, subject, author, date, and more!

Most books on Fashion Studies are located at the University Center library.
The sections related to fashion are: GT (6th Floor) and TT (7th Floor). 
General History of Costume - GT510-513
Ancient Costume -  GT530
Classical Greek and Roman Dress - GT545
Medieval Dress - GT575
16th-18th Century Dress - GT585
Napoleonic/Empire Dress - GT585
19th Century Dress - GT595
20th Century Dress - GT596
African Fashion & Dress - GT1580
American Fashion & Dress - GT605-617
East Asian Fashion & Dress - GT1550
European Fashion & Dress​ - GT720
     British Dress - GT 730-805
     French Dress - GT850-889
     Italian Dress - GT960-972
Latin American Dress - GT623-716
Middle Eastern Dress - GT1370
South Asian Dress
GT1455

However, you may have interest in books on Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, & other subjects. Those are held in the List Center Library. 

Keep In Mind: there are more books available offsite! Look in the Library Catalog for more!

How to Read Call Numbers

Call numbers are simple once you get the hang of it!

First, when you look at a call number, you will read it alphabetically: AB comes before BB, which comes before CB. 

Then, you read it numerically: BB20 comes before BB100, which comes before BB200
Remember: even though 20 starts with a 2, it is still a smaller number than 100!

So, if we put CB395, AB100, CB40, and BB600 in order, it looks like: AB100, BB600, CB40, CB395

There are multiple ways to get a book if we do not have it at The New School Libraries:
  • Some of our books are labeled as Offsite. Offsite books are kept just outside the city & can be delivered to The New School library of your choice in just 1-2 days. Place a Hold on these materials by going to the book's catalog page, logging in, clicking on the 'Offsite' listing, and clicking 'Hold.'
  • Does the catalog say it's available at NYU or Cooper Union? We are 'in consortium' with them, which means that you can check out books from their libraries! Your New School ID card gets you in the door & acts as your library card.
  • You can request a book through EZ Borrow, and it will arrive at The New School library of your choice in 3-5 days. You can check out this book for 16 weeks. To do this, you can 'Request a Physical Copy' on a book's catalog page. 
  • You may have heard about Interlibrary Loan (ILL) from your local public library or high school. We are happy to facilitate ILL requests for you, but please keep in mind that they make take 2-8 weeks to arrive, and the checkout period is at the discretion of the lending library.

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