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Researching Local Topics: Books and Videos

A guide for researchers examining issues in the islands.

Using the Library Catalog - Primo

The UHMC Library houses thousands of books and videos about Hawai'i.

Most of the books are shelved in the Hawaiian history section of the library, however some exist that would be useful for local current events topics. In fact, over the past few years, we've seen an increase of ebooks and books-in-print about Hawai'i and Maui issues, such as those published about traffic, sustainability and the environment, and education. 

Explore the library's video collections in the box marked Streaming Media. 


Use our book catalog, Primo, to find library books available in print and online (ebooks).

Tips for Finding Books and Videos in Primo

 

The library's "catalog" (Primo) is a good place to start for finding books on any topic. Follow these steps for a Primo Quick Search for books:

1. To search the catalog go to the library homepage and type your keywords into the search box: 


 

2. The default for Primo Quick Search is to search Everything. To make finding books easier, select UHMC Library from the drop down:


 

3. Click Search

4. On the search results page, you will see book and video titles listed (when available). The enter column displays your search results in relevancy-ranked order. To tweak your results to see just books or videos, select the Resource Type from the Tweak your Results column. 


 

5. If you tweak your results for books only, you will get search results for books in print and ebooks. To find book in print, select Held by library from the Tweak my results column.  


 

Streaming Media Collections

Current Events in Hawai'i - The Value of Hawai‘i series

The contributors to these books share a belief that taking stock of our current issues, what we need to change, and what we need to remember is a challenge that all of us must meet. The brief essays in The Value of Hawai‘i series address a wide range of topics—education, the environment, Hawaiian issues, media, tourism, political culture, law, labor, economic planning, government, transportation, poverty, health, and the COVID-19 crisis.