Library Tutorial for Public Health

Last update: 16 February 2007,
by Maureen Bell

Section 3(a) Searching the catalogue for books

The Library catalogue lists books that the Library gets in printed or electronic form. The most obvious options for searching for a book are searching by author (or editor) or by title, and you can see these listed in the Search by box on the right of the Basic Search screen.

Author (or Editor) Searching

For a simple demonstration of how to search for a book by author or editor, click here.

Title searching

Click here for a simple demonstration of how to search for a book by title.

Note that book chapters are normally searched by book titles not by chapter titles. Only when a chapter is on a course reading list will you find the chapter listed in the catalogue.

Keyword Searching

If you don't know the author's initial or the exact title, consider using one of the keyword options. There are three levels

1. Keyword (search engine style) - this level allows very simple searching.
For a demonstration of how it works, just click here.

2. Keyword (use and, or, not, " ") on the Basic Search screen. This option allows more flexibility and precision.

Keyword (using and, or, not, " ") searching hints

3. An even more flexible option is Guided Keyword Search - this level allows the most precise searching, and is really useful for those times when you're unsure of the details of authors and titles of books.

The dropdown boxes allow you to specify where to look for the words - you can easily search an author's last name and keywords from the title. Even an author's first name and words from the title often work. Guided Keyword Search is also useful for the publications of conferences or organisations where the author's name is often not obvious.

Extra help for Guided Keyword Searching is available here.

Section 3 (b). Searching the catalogue for a journal or newspaper

When you know the journal title, volume and pages of a journal article, you can find it using the Library catalogue. (When you don't know these details, you need to search your topic in a database first - but we'll deal with that later)

The Library sometimes has printed journals shelved in its collections, sometimes we get electronic journals which you reach through Web links and sometimes we get both. You can search both print and electronic journals in the Library catalogue's Journal or Newspaper Title option. For print journals, the catalogue gives the location and call number in the Library collections. For electronic journals, the catalogue gives a link directly to the journal.

At the Basic search screen, choose the Journal or Newspaper Title option . Search the journal title not the article title.

Journal or Newspaper searching hints

If you want to check for the electronic version of the journal but not the print, you can use the Electronic Resources limit from the box at the right of the screen.

You will then need to check that we hold the volume/year that you want.

Questions

Look at the examples below, and list the ways in which you could search for them in the catalogue.

1. Realini J. P. (2004) Teenage pregnancy prevention: what can we do? American Family Physician. 70(8):1457-8.

2. Webster, I. (1998) Choices in health. In The tasks of medicine : an ideology of care, ed. P. Baume, 61-72. MacLennan & Petty, Sydney.

3. Baum, F. (2002) The new public health, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Vic.

ANSWERS

Answers

1. The first example would be searchable by the title of the journal - American Family Physician, and you would need to check that we held the volume in question. (See Section 5)

Only if your lecturer had specifically asked us to make an electronic copy of the article and catalogue it would you be able to find the article by title, or by author.

2. The second example would be able to be searched by the editor of the book Baume, P - not the author of the chapter. You could also search for the title of the book - tasks of medicine : an ideology of care (remember that you'd need to omit "The" at the beginning of the title), or you could use the Guided Keyword Search to search part of the author's name and some words from the title.

Only if your lecturer had specifically asked us to make an electronic copy of the chapter and catalogue it would you be able to find the chapter by title, or by author.

3. The third example would be searchable by the author - Baum, F - or the title - new public health (remember that you'd need to omit "The" at the beginning of the title), or you could use the Guided Keyword Search to search part of the author's name and some words from the title.

Return to Section 2

Go to Section 4