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Finding Books
Sample Searches in the Library Catalog

Author Search

From the catalog section of the libraries' home page, select Author from the pull-down list. Then type erdrich louise in the search box and click Go (see image below). Notice that the author's last (or family) name is entered first.

The results screen below shows a number of titles written by this author, with their publication dates, including The Beet Queen: A Novel.

To get more information about this book, click on the underlined title. Note the location, call number, and status of the book (shown below); a status of AVAILABLE or LIB USE ONLY means that you should be able to find it in the Libraries.

Using this information, you can determine where the book is located. Most materials in Knight Library are shelved according to their call number:

A-HB	2nd floor
HC-PN	3rd floor
PQ-Z	4th floor

Thus, The Beet Queen, with a call number beginning with PS, would be shelved on the 4th floor of Knight Library.

Title Search

Go back to the Library Home Page to do a new search. Now select Title from the drop-down menu, then in the search box type arctic dreams and click Search.

Notice that the University of Oregon Libraries own several copies of this book in various locations, and that the status (availability) of each is shown:

Click on any of the call number links. This results in a list of books with similar call numbers, in this case other books on Arctic ecology.

Clicking on a call number in the online catalog allows you to "browse" the library shelves from your computer. To get more information on any of the books listed, click on the underlined call number.

Keyword Search

Return to the Library Home Page. Using keyword in the drop-down menu, type in the search box environmental racism and click Submit Search.

Keyword searching is one way – often the most frequently used way – to search by topic. Note that there are many options available to help focus your search. You can:

• enter additional terms, if necessary;
• choose to search for a term in title, author, or subject;
• limit your search to materials written in a specific language, where an item is located within the Libraries, year of publication, or publisher; and
• sort results by date, title, or relevance.

The results of this keyword search show you items where the phrase "environmental racism" appears either in the title or somewhere else in the catalog (bibliographic) record. By default, results are displayed with the most recent items first. To view more information about any item, including location and call number, click on the underline title.

Keyword searching in the library catalog is extremely powerful. There are many subtleties of keyword searching - adjacency, truncation, Boolean operators, proximity, and field searching - that can help you create better searches. See the keyword search page in the library catalog for more information.

Subject Search

Return to the Library Home Page, then select Subject from the drop-down menu. In the search box type video games and click Search.

In addition to the keyword search, you may find materials on a topic through a subject search. The headings you see on the screen are Library of Congress Subject Headings. A complete list of these headings is found in several large red volumes at the Reference Desk in Knight Library.

Notice that under each subject heading is a list of titles, with their locations and call numbers. Clicking on the subject heading will bring up a complete list of titles for that heading. Clicking on an individual title will bring up the catalog record for that title.

"Same Subject" Search

Under the heading, "Video Games," click on the the title Electronic children: how children are responding ....

Notice that the record for this book lists four headings under L.C.subject. These are Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings. You'll find other kinds of subject headings in the online catalog, but LC headings are the most common.

Let's say you wanted more books on the subject of Mass media and children. Click on the subject heading in the catalog record to retrieve an alphabetic list of subject headings, with a list of books about the subject under each heading.

Summary: In the online catalog, you can click on subject headings, authors' names, and titles to retrieve related items.

Sorting a Search

Do a subject search on genetic engineering. This search retrieves over 80 subjects and over 350 titles. That's probably too many items to look at one by one. Now suppose what you actually wanted was recently published material on genetic engineering. The online catalog allows you to sort your search, so that you can view the results according to your preference:

The online catalog shows references to other subject headings ("see" and "see also") first, followed by periodicals, then the latest books.

For help, please contact a librarian.