Great for instructional books with in depth overviews of topics related to hard skills. O'Reilly Online Learning is a database that features books heavily related to technology along with other topics that may help your practice such as Drawing & Painting and Color.
You have free access as a Langara student. Some public libraries in the lower mainland have access or are trialing access to O'Reilly books (such as Vancouver Public Library) and so you may be able to access it beyond your time at Langara.
Great for instructional videos that give overviews, as well as answering specific questions on both hard and soft skills. You can access instructional how-to videos through LinkedIn Learning - an online platform that has training on practical topics in the categories of Business, Technology, and Creative.
Similar to O'Reilly Books, you have free access to these as a Langara student and most public libraries in the lower mainland (such as Vancouver Public Library) offer access to LinkedIn Learning too so you can continue to use it even beyond Langara!
You can also search the library catalogue for how-to books. Search by keyword, author, or title. Many of the technical books in the library are online. The advantage of this is that online books are more up to date than print books.
Some examples of books in our collection:
Handbuilt, a Potter's Guide : Master Timeless Techniques, Explore New Forms, Dig and Process Your Own Clay by 
Additions to Clay Bodies by 
Surface Decoration by And more books under the Pottery - craft. subject heading.
Call Numbers
A call number is like an address for a house. It helps you locate an item in the library.
Call numbers use a combination of letters and numbers. Read the call number line by line, left to right and top to bottom. The final set of numbers is the year the book was published.
Most of the books in Langara Library are located on the second floor (call numbers A-F) and third floor (call numbers G-Z). Most of the art books are located on the third floor in the N section but there are other sections of the library with relevant books too.
Finding Similar Books
Call numbers are designed to bring books on similar topics together on the shelf. If you find one book on your topic, look around - you may find more!
When you find a book online by searching our catalogue, you can also find similar books by looking at the Subjects links and clicking on any one of them to find similar books:
