The catalog is the database you use to find the books, maps, videos, journals (both print and electronic), sound recordings, etc. that the library owns. The catalog will tell you the call number and location of the item if we own it. If we don't own the title, you can request it through interlibrary loan. You will learn about how to navigate the catalog by working through the following five sections: Basic Screen Elements, Author, Title, Keyword and Subject. Start the tutorial...
The following activities will take you quickly through the basic navigational features of the Catalog. There are 7 questions in this section.
When doing an author search, always type the author's last name then first name - you don't need to use capital letters or a comma between last and first names, but the order of the names is very important.
Click on the "Start Over " button to start a new search. Choose "Author". Search for the author John Updike(remember to put the author's last name first).
Now click on the titleThe Afterlife and Other Stories.
Now you're going to search for another author. You can do it from this page by typing the new author in the search box (at the top of the record). The search box defaults to the last type of search you did - in this case Author. Now search for Barbara Kingsolver .
Finally, do an author search for J. A. Jance. ** Note, be sure to put a space between the J. and the A. when you do this search**.
Now, click the "Search for Jance, Judith A." link
When you know the exact Title, a title search is the most direct and unique way to search. Always search by the title first if you have one. If a title search does not work, then the next best is to search by author. There are 5 questions in this section.
Click the "Start Over" button to get back to the Catalog.
Choose Title. Search for the title The Confessions of Max Tivoli.
Next, do another Title search from this page by typing the new title in the search box. Search for the title Bringing up Baby. Click on the first entry.
Let's search for another Title. Search for the title Records of Salem Witchcraft.
Keywords are terms you can search by.
One of the best ways to figure out what keywords to use for a search is to think about the topic you are researching and then identify three or four relevant words. These will be the words that you'll use to begin your search.
Before you start this section, you need to know that the default searching method for the catalog is something called phrase searching. What this means is that if you type two words right next to each other the database will only search for and retrieve library materials that have those two words right next to each other.
For example, if you want to find library materials about Italian women poets and type "Italian women poets" into the keyword search box, you will not find many items. This is because the catalog is searching for the exact phrase Italian women poets, with the words in that order. In order to find more materials, you need to type "Italian and women and poets" into the keyword search box.
There are 7 questions in this section.
Start a new search by clicking on the "Start Over" button. Remember the catalog defaults to Keyword. Search for monkeys and behavior.
Click on a few of the titles. Look for the words in red. *Remember to use the back button to get back to the main list of records.
Because searching by Keyword allows you to search the contents, title, and subject fields of an item's record, this type of search is useful to find short stories and plays. Short stories and plays are usually published within collections and so you won't always find them searching by title. The next few questions will demonstrate this. Click the "Start Over" button (located at both the top and bottom of the screen) Choose "Title" (not keyword). Search for the title Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. (you can just copy and paste the title into the search box) This is the title of a play.
Now we want to search this same title by keyword. Click the drop-down arrow next to the search box and choose "Keyword". Notice that the title, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, is already in the box so you don't have to type it again. Click the "Search" button.
You will see that you found more entries for your search when you did it as keyword rather than title. You found all of the records that had Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as the title, but you also found records that included this play in the contents note.
Some of the titles you found with this search include the text of the play you are looking for and some include literary criticism of the play. One way to determine this is to look at the subject headings and see if the word criticism is part of any of the subject headings.
Take a look at a few of the records. Can you tell the difference between the library materials that contain the actual play and the materials that contain literary criticism of the play (articles written about the play)?
Go to the second screen and open the record for The Theatre of Tennessee Williams. Look at this record.
Try to find a zip code map for Tucson.
In this section, you will learn how to look at a catalog record to find subject headings. Why use subject headings? Subject headings are a great way to expand your searches by helping you find more information on topics. There are 3 questions in this section.
Click on "Start Over". Do a keyword search for monkeys and sushi.
Select the title "The ape and the sushi master : cultural reflections by a primatologist". Look through the catalog record until you see the Subjects (look for a blue box on the left side of the screen).
Click on the Psychology, Comparative subject heading. When you get to the page, look down the list for the same subject heading (in bold). Click the link associated with this subject heading.
You are done with this tutorial!
Click here to take the quiz!
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