Using Wikibooks/Finding A Wikibook

Finding Books

There are a number of methods for finding books on Wikibooks. We will discuss some of the methods here on this page.

Search

The Wikibooks interface includes a search tool on the left-hand side of the page. Type in a subject that you want to search for and click Search. This will display a screen filled with books and book pages that contain that search term.

Another option, if you know the title of the book you want to find or think you know it, is to type in the title of the book and click Go. The go button will take you to the page if it exists, or else it will take you to the search page.

Some books exist for common topics, such as Algebra, Biology, or Rhetoric. Typing in a common subject name may very well take you to a book on that subject.

Shelves

Wikibooks has experimented with a number of organizational methods in the past, some of which turned out to be very unwieldy or difficult to use for a number of reasons. Instead of using an existing organizational method like a traditional library would use, we use a custom system that's designed to work well with our wiki software.

Wikibooks uses a series of "shelves", organized at the top level into 12 Departments. From that departments page, you can easily navigate to books based on subject, reading level, audience, and other metrics. Every shelf page will contain a list of books on that subject, a list of sub-topics, and possibly a few other lists as well.

Card Catalog Office

Like ordinary libraries, Wikibooks has a card catalog office (CCO) that we use to keep our books organized. The CCO keeps books organized using several methods, including by subject, by completion status, by reading level, and alphabetically by book title. There is a link to the CCO in the "navigation" box (typically located on the left-hand side of the page). Click the link that says "browse" to go to it.

Books on Wikibooks are broken down by subjects. There are ten major subject areas: Computing, Engineering, Humanities, Languages, Mathematics, Miscellaneous, Recreational activities, Science, Social sciences, and Standard curricula. In addition, there is also a department for Wikijunior, and a smaller one for Help books; there is also the Cookbook:. Each major department contains several shelves covering subtopic. Each shelf page displays a brief summary of the subject, a list of books related to the subject, a list of subtopic shelves, a list of featured books, a link to a Wikipedia page on the topic, and other useful information as well. There are many different shelves on Wikibooks, and more are created on a regular basis.

Shelves

The department and shelf pages are an important navigational tool for finding books. They can be accessed from Wikibooks Stacks/Departments. From there, you can navigate through the shelves to find books you are interested in. Books are listed by the subject material, but they are also listed in other ways as well. Here are some ways that a book can be listed in the shelves:

1. By reading level
2. By book status
3. Whether the book has a print version, a PDF version, or both.
4. Books for particular audiences, such as Wikijunior books for children.

Featured Books

Clicking the "Featured Books" link on the left side of the page in the "navigation" box will take you to the list of featured books on Wikibooks. Featured books are not perfect, but they are some of the best that we have to offer, and are good examples of what a new book can aspire to.

If you find a book that you particularly like, and want to see it listed as a featured book, you can nominate it. The Wikibooks community will discuss it, and if they agree in general, the book will be promoted to featured status.