Finding Books and Other Items Guide

To find Books, search the library's Public Access Catalog (PAC).

Searching the Library Catalog

• If you know the item you need try:
• Author
• Title
• Author and Title
  
• If you do not know the item you need try:
• Subject 
• Simple Keyword
• Advanced Keyword
• Call Number 

The library's online catalog provides access to the library's circulating collection of books, videos, slides, records, CD-ROMs, and cassettes.

Each item in the library's collection has a record in the catalog. This record describes the item by subject, author, and title.  It also contains a call number so the item can be located.

Searching the Library Catalog
The catalog can be searched by Author, Title, Author and Title, Subject, Keyword, and Call Number.  These search options each have weaknesses and strengths.  It is best to try several of them to see which gives the best results.

Searching by:

Author (click here to enter the catalog's Author Search)
The "author" is the person, people or organization that created an item in the collection.  This could be a person's name such as Woolf, Virginia, or an organization that wrote a report such as the American Medical Association.

Guidelines

• Last names are always typed first.
• Exact spelling is important.
• Entering a name such as "Virginia Woolf" will find items by Virginia Woolf, not about Virginia Woolf.

Title (click here to enter the catalog's Title Search)
The "title" is the name given to an item in the collection such as War and Peace, Sonata for Clarinet, or Death: a Bibliographical Guide.  (See the words in title search below)

Guidelines

• The title search looks for words in the exact order they appear in the title.  Entering the word "peace" by itself  will not produce the record for War and Peace but entering the word "war" will.
• If "a," "an," or "the" is the first word in the title, ignore it.  Use the next word in the title.
• This is best used when you know the exact title of the item you want.

Author and Title (click here to enter the catalog's title and Author Search)
The "title and author" search allows you to search these two areas at the same time.  Entering "Sade" in the author box and "complete" in the title box will retrieve  The Complete Justine: Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings  by The Marquis de Sade.

Guildelines

• This search looks for words in the title and author in the exact order that they appear.  Entering the name "Ernest" will not retrieve items by Hemingway.
• This is best when you know the exact item you are looking for.

Subject (click here to enter the catalog's Subject Search)
The "subject" search is designed to bring together works that concern the same basic idea or principle.  Entering the word "explosions" will produce two records that deal with this term. Entering the term "economics" will produce 181 records.

Guidelines

• This search looks for subjects exactly as they are entered.
• Use this search when you do not know the exact title or author you are looking for.
• When you find a record you like, look at the listed subjects to get additional items that are similar to it.
• Use similes of search terms to see which words are used for exact subjects.  Ask a librarian how to find more subject terms.

Simple Keyword (click here to enter the catalog's Keyword Search)
This search looks for a word anywhere in the record.  Entering the term "peace" will pull up 383 records that contain "peace" in the record.  Record 244 is War and Peace. 

Guidelines

• It is easy to lose control of this search, since it looks for words anywhere in the record.  One word can retrieve hundreds of records.
• This search is a good alternative to subject searches but it runs the risk of being too broad.
• Using the * will truncate the search.  For example, entering librar* will retrieve the words library, librarian, and libraries.

Advanced Keyword Seach (click here to enter the Advanced Keyword Search)

The "Advanced Key Word" search gives you more powerful searching options.  This type of searching allows you to use easy to learn Boolean operators and truncation (click here for a more detailed explanation).  You can also limit your search by date, language or material type (for example book, videocassette, DVD or magazine).  Using this option you could find a Book that was produced after 2005 that has the words economics and politics in the item record.

Call Number click here to enter the catalog's Library of Congress Call Number search. This search retrieves items with similar call numbers. You can also search by Government Document Call Number for government publications.

Guidelines

• A call number search is a great way to retrieve works that center around a similar subject, since call numbers are assigned by subject.
• You do not have to enter the entire call number. For example, entering "RC" in the LC Call Number will retrieve 1,734 records that all deal with medical and biological sciences.
• Once you find a record you like, you may want to take its call number and enter part of it in this search to see what other materials are in the collection.