Finding Books: Tips for Searching the Libraries' Catalog and More

Catalog Tutorials [1]

University Libraries offers books in the following libraries: Gorgas Library (humanities and social sciences), McLure Education Library, Bruno Business Library, Rodgers Library for Science and Engineering, and Hoole Special Collections Library. Also included in the catalog with the University Libraries' collections is the collection at the Health Sciences Library. Search in the electronic Libraries' Catalog to find a book's location and call number. To check out books, find the books in the appropriate campus library and check out the books with your Action Card at the circulation desk. UA also offers electronic books accessible online. To begin, choose one of these options:

Basic Search - Search for keywords, name (last name first), title, subject or call number

Advanced Search -- Search for terms in specific fields. Use this if you are looking for a particular book and have limited information.

Library Account -- Allows you to see books that you have checked out and recheck them.

Kudzu -- Use this when you want a book that is not available at University of Alabama. Kudzu searches the catalogs of other libraries in the South. You can order books from these other libraries and have them sent to the Interlibrary Loan Office at the University of Alabama.

Course Reserves -- Find materials placed on Reserve for a particular class and/or Professor.

Quick Search -- Works like Basic Search (see above)

SEARCHING TIPS

Basic Search

Highlight the field (keyword, title, journal title, author, subject heading call number) that you want to Find Results in. Use Keyword for most general searching. Then type in your search in the Find This space.

Keyword searching is similar to an Internet search engine like Yahoo! Here are two ways to perform Keyword Searching:

Regular Keyword Searching:
Mark essential terms with +: +explorer
Mark important terms with *: *internet
Use a question mark (?) after a search term to indicate truncation: swim?
Use quotation marks to search for specific phrases: “world wide web”

Command Searching:
Connect words with AND, OR, NOT (be sure to capitalize AND, OR, NOT)
Use a question mark (?) after a search term to indicate truncation: swim?

Author--put the last name first when searching for an author. If you have the last name and initials, enter only the first initial without the period.

Title or Journal Title--Omit “the,” “a,” and “an” at the beginning of a title.

Subject--Uses Library of Congress subject terms and is generally NOT truly what you think your subject is. Example: to find books on the American Civil War you would have to enter “united states history civil war 1861-1865”.

Quick Limit--Limit your search to a particular campus library by using the drop down box on the right side of the screen. For more ways to limit, click the “Limits” box on the bottom right of the screen.

Advanced Search

Type in keywords in the Search For: boxes.

Connect the keywords with AND, OR, or NOT by filling in the bubbles.

Select either “any of these”, “all of these”, or “as a phrase” in the drop down boxes.

In the Search In: boxes on the right side of the screen, use Keywords Anywhere for most searches. Or, use the drop down boxes to make your search specialized. This works very well if you have pieces of information. Example: Someone named “Snow” wrote a political science book with “Eagles” in the title. Type in “snow” and choose author name from the drop down box. Type “eagles” in the next box and chose title from the drop down box. Click on search at the bottom of the screen.

Click the Limits box in the bottom right corner to limit a search to a particular campus library, language, format, place of publication, and publication status.

VIEWING A BOOK'S RECORD

Print Books: Click on the title of the book from the list of records to see all of the publication information about a book. Use the Previous and Next buttons at the top and bottom to scroll. Check the Status of the book to find out if the book is charged (checked out) or not. If the book is not checked out, look for the Location and Call number of the book. On the shelves of the appropriate library, look for the call number's letters in alphabetical order first and then the numbers. Here is an example of how books would be arranged by call number:

H45 .H18

H50 .A47

HA1446.U17

HD5715.2.D57

HN57.E58 1993

Print / Save / E-Mail / Records

Marking records from the titles page that you want to print/save/e-mail works only for the page displayed on the screen. If you go to the next page, your marks are erased.

To Print or Save records: At the bottom of the page, click on the disk icon (even for printing) Go to “file” in your browser. Choose either “Print” or “Save As”

To E-mail records: At the bottom of the page, enter your e-mail address and then click the e-mail icon.

Kudzu

Type your search term(s) in the search box.

Use the buttons below the search box to select Author, Title, Keyword, or Subject.

Click the Go button to start your search.

After finding books, click the Interlibrary Loan button to order.

Use Advanced Search to make your search specialized.

Course Reserves

Select the an item from the drop down boxes: Instructor, Department, Course and/or section. After you find the item, click on it and write down the call number and location. Check out the item with an Action Card by going to the Reserve Desk at the appropriate library.

NetLibrary Books

To view the text of an electronic book, click on the book's title and then click on the message “an electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web”. Select either browse, check out, or download.