The University of Adelaide Library

Using the Catalogue for Engineering

Information Resources for Engineering

Finding information through the Library Catalogue

The Library Catalogue is your route to the books, reports and journals to which the Library provides access, in print or electronic form. When you use the Catalogue you will know either which book or journal article or electronic database you want, ie. have a reference, or have a topic about which you need information. The following notes provide examples to address each of those situations. In addtition, there are notes for other Catalogue features which are useful for finding information for your reports.

Following up references to a book

(1) When you know the details of a book,
select Basic search and type the title in the Search for: bar, leaving the default at Search by: Title(all items) eg.

Search for: What every engineer should know about ethics Search by: Title(all items)

Important NOTE - do not type the initial article before the title.
Important NOTE - if the book title includes the word and which might be shown also as & try both versions of the title or do a Keyword search.

Results

The Search Results: report gives Brief records describing the titles that match your search strategy.
A Brief record shows the number of titles which match that search strategy, followed by a numbered list of the titles arranged alphabetically by title, the location and an indication of whether the title is available for loan.
If you want to see the most recent publications first, go to Sort by at the top or bottom of the titles list, and pull down to click on Date (latest first).
For more information about the book click on the title to bring up the Record view which includes the number of copies, their Location: Call Number: and Status: (whether or not the item is on loan) for each copy.
Use the previous and next icons to move backwards or forwards through the list of titles.

Print / Save-to-disk / Email

You can retain information about books that are potentially interesting either electronically to your disk or via email or in print form.
Click in the check box from the column to the left of a title to mark that record to be saved in a set to Print/Save or E-mail later.

Important NOTE - if your search results in more than 25 titles and you want to mark titles from the second or subsequent screens, click on Retain Selected before going on to the next screen of results.

Use Print/Save Options (at the bottom of the display) to Print/Save or E-mail records to your account, or Save to Bookbag.

Extend the search

Follow the links at Subject Heading(s): to get a list of other books on the same topic.

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Following up references to a journal article
Remember, the Library Catalogue DOES NOT LIST individual articles from journals, so you need to search under the title of the journal.

Select Basic search,
and type the full title of the journal in the Search for: bar, changing the default at Search by: to Journal or Newspaper Title eg.

Search for: Architecture Australia Search by: Journal or Newspaper Title

Results

The Search Results: will display the journal titles corresponding to your search.
Click on the title for the Record view which gives a full description of the journal together with the Location: Call Number: the range of volumes that the Library Has: and Status: (whether or not the item is on loan) for each copy.

Compare the information provided at Library Has: with your reference to see that the Library indeed has the issue that you need.

Where the Library has paid a subscription for access to the electronic version of a journal there will be a Catalogue Record with a link to the electronic text of the journal. At the top of the Catalogue Record there will be a line Link to e-Resource: Click on the words to the right of this notice to go to the full text site.

Search by: Journal or Newspaper Title is particularly useful when you are trying to find a journal with a short or single word title which could be the name of a book , eg.

Built environment
Landscape architecture
October

What does the Library have on my topic?

To find books on a topic you have a number options on the Catalogue.
(1) In Basic Search using Keywords (using and, or, not)
(2) In Basic Search using Subject Heading

In Basic Search from Search by: select Keywords (using and, or, not).

This option finds groups of characters or search terms from anywhere in the Record view including words from the title, author's name(s), publisher, place of publication, subject headings, notes, series title, and groups of numbers from the ISBN and the call number.

In the Search for: bar type words to describe your topic, then click on Search, eg.

Search for: rendering Search by: Keywords (using and, or, not)

Using the Boolean operators (and, or, not) will enable you to make your search more specific and effective.

Where you have more than one concept, type the   AND   operator between your search words so the Catalogue will find records which include each search word, eg.
urban   AND   ecology    finds 189 records which include both of these words somewhere in a record.
Where you want both singular and plural forms of a word, truncate the word and add a question mark ? to the stem, eg.
building? AND adelaide
Where you know of alternative words for a concept, enclose the string of the words within round brackets ( ) and type the OR   operator between each word, eg.
(house? OR dwelling? OR apartment?) AND (architect? OR builder? OR designer?)

Use phrase searching where your concept is more efficiently described than words combined with the AND operator. Put the phrase in inverted commas, eg.

Search for: "air conditioning" Search by: Keywords (using and, or, not)

(2) In Basic Search from Search by: select Subject Heading.

With this option finds it is necessary to have the exact subject heading, eg.

Search for: Architecture, Domestic Search by: Subject Heading

Determine the appropriate headings for your search by
- observation of Subject Headings in the Record view from the results of previous searches, or
- from the Library of Congress Subject Headings which the Library uses to assign subject descriptions to each book. A set of these four large red volumes is kept near the Information Desk, Level 3, South.

See Also: in the left-hand column of the Subject Browse display, provides a list of other Subject Headings which exist for aspects of the topic, eg.

References for: Urban policy) Reference info See Also: City planning
See Also: Community development, Urban
See Also: Housing policy
See Also: Land use, Urban
See Also: Urban beautification
See Also: Urban renewal
See Also: Urbanization

Sub-headings can be added to search for a specific aspect of a Subject, eg.

Architecture--Philosophy
City planning--Social aspects
Office buildings--Design and construction
Further sub-headings may be available for increased specificity, eg.

Architecture--Decision making--Citizen participation
Buildings--Conservation and restoration--Ecomonic aspects

Sub-headings for the name of a country, state or region can be added to many Subject Headings, eg.

Architecture, Modern--20th century--Japan
Cities and towns--Europe
Urbanization--Developing countries
Further sub-headings can be added for a specific place, eg.

Architecture and energy conservation--South Australia--Adelaide

Subject Headings not listed in the Library of Congress Subject Headings
Proper names are automatically allowed as subject headings. Among such headings are:

names of individual engineers or designers, eg.
Foster, Norman, 1939-
Griffin, Marion Mahony, 1871-1962
names of engineering firms, eg.
Arup
Memphis (Group)

names of geographical features, eg.
Murray River, (S. Aust.)
Sydney Opera House

names of particular structures, eg.
Old Parliament House Adelaide, (S. Aust.)
an oil platform? ekofisk?
Sydney Opera House

names of government authorities, eg.
Old Parliament House Adelaide, (S. Aust.)
SA Water

names of individual cities, eg.
Ahmadabad (India)
Fremantle (W. A.)

names of states or regions, eg.
Adelaide Hills (S. Aust.)
Queensland
names of computer programs eg.
Ada
C++
Fortran

If you are not happy with the results of your searches or want some help with using Boolean operators to create your search strategy, please contact your Research Librarian, Kay Leverett, Barr Smith Library, Level 3, South, phone 34659 or email: kay.leverett@adelaide.edu.au

Other useful features of the Catalogue

Save Options

Save individual records or a set of records from your Catalogue search. Having the file in electronic format is a convenient way to store information that can be copied and pasted into the list of references for your essay.
At the display of   Search Results:    select the individual records of interest by clicking in the box in the left hand column. Go to   Print/Save Options   (at the bottom of the display) and select Print/Save   or    Enter your e-mail address:   and E-mail   the selected records to your account.
Instead of selecting individual titles you may choose from   All on page   or   Selected on page   or   Selected all pages.
Alternatively, Save results for later: using Save To Bookbag   to create a file on    My Library    of selected records.   You can access your Bookbag through   My Library   at any time.

Links to records sharing the same author, series, or subject heading

At the Record view click on a Subject heading, Author's name or Series title to get a list of 50 headings, starting with the heading you selected. Click on the number to the left of a Subject heading, Author's name or Series title, to display up to 50 titles sharing that Subject heading, Author's name or Series title.

Display list of results by date

The default order of results is Relevance in the keyword searches, and alphabetically by Title for other searches. To see the most recent publications first, at Search Results: go to Sort by: (above the list of titles for your search) and pull down to select Date (latest first). The system will re-sort the titles and present them in reverse-date order, the most recent publications first. This can be useful if you are looking for the latest material on a topic, or the most recent edition of a book. You can also Sort by: Author in alphabetical order.

Search History

This function provides a list of the searches done in your session, with links back to the search results.

Under Searched for: click on the appropriate search strategy to bring back the results of that search.