What Do I Use Tripod For?

Tripod is the place to go when you're looking for books, dvds, cds, online databases or journal titles held by Haverford, Bryn Mawr, or Swarthmore.  It is the Trico Libraries' online catalog.  Everything we own or subscribe to should be in Tripod. 

How Do I Search Tripod?

Searching Tripod can be as basic as a keyword search, but there's much more to try.
If you know what you're looking for, try a title or title/author search.  When performing a title search use the exact title minus the initial article (a, an, or the).  For example, to search for the title Maus, choose title from the first drop-down menu, enter Bluest Eye, and hit enter.  From here you'll see a results screen, and you'll see that there are in fact several copies of Maus in the Trico.  Title searches in Tripod also search chapter titles if they are cataloged.

Pick one of the results, and take a closer look.  You'll see a hyperlinked author name, the title of the book, the call number and location of every copy, and subject headings that tell you the general subjects of the book.  If you click on the author's name, Tripod will search for all works by Art Spiegelman in the catalog.  If you click on a subject heading, Tripod will look for all books that have been cataloged with that subject heading (this is usually more useful with non-fiction books).

What Do I Do If the Book I Want Is Not At Haverford?

If the book you want is checked out or only available at Bryn Mawr or Swarthmore, try requesting a copy from another library.  Click on the orange request button at the top of the screen, enter your name, barcode, and library you want it delivered to, and hit go.  Choose the item you want to request and hit the request button.  Your book should be delivered within about a day.

If all copies of the book are checked out, your other option is EZBorrow.  EZBorrow searches most academic libraries in Pennsylvania and books ordered this way usually arrive in about three days.

Logging in to Tripod

By logging in to Tripod you gain access to information about your account such as your reading history, the books you've got checked out, and any interlibrary loans you've requested.

The MLA is the best place to go if you're looking for journal articles or essays in books about literature.  Like Tripod, you can do a basic keyword search, or you can narrow your searches down by using some more advanced techniques.

Using the standard search for MLA.  From here you can do a keyword search, such as "bluest eye" and "morrison."  The results will tell you every time the combination of those two search terms appeared in the database.  Beware the "Title Keyword" search: this searches keywords in the titles of critical works, not literary works.

Use the button to find out if we have the cited reference in the Trico.  A separate window will open up and either take you directly to an electronic version of the article, give you a link to check Tripod for a print copy, or tell you we don't have a copy.  If we don't have a copy, don't worry!  You can request most things from Interlibrary Loan by clicking on the ILL link, entering your name and barcode and submitting the request.

There are other ways of searching MLA that come in handy.  Try searching for "author as subject" or "author's work."  But watch out!  Not all titles are indexed in MLA (for instance, Maus).