Book Title Searches

You now know how to identify citations to books, and chapters in books and now you need to know how to find their locations and call numbers using The Catalogue.

There are three ways of searching for known books in The Catalogue:

Search for the Title if you know the exact book title. It's usually the quickest option.

Search for the Author if you know an author's surname and first initial, but you are unsure of the title.

Use Keywords  when you know only a few words from the title and/or an author's (or editor's) surname.

Title

Title searches are not case sensitive so it doesn't matter if you use capital letters or not. Punctuation is ignored, including foreign language accents.

You can type in all of the title of a book       e.g. principles of anatomy and physiology
You can truncate the title                             e.g. principles of anatomy and physiol

But don't leave words out or truncate words        principles anatomy physiology
within the title

Never use a, an, or the if it's the first word of the title!

Don't use foreign equivalents of these as the first word of a foreign language title.

Start at the Library Home. Click on the Catalogue tab Click on the triangle at the end of the box containing Keyword (search engine style) Click on Title (omit beginning 'The', 'A' etc) Use Alt-Tab, or the task bar button to return to this tutorial

Type the book title  principles of anatomy and physiology into the Search for box. Click on the Search button. Then return to this tutorial.

 

Notice that The Catalogue finds nine books with this title. These are eight editions of the same book plus another book with a similar title.

You can sort these books in various ways.
Left click in the Sort by box.
Click on a sort option.

To look at the details of any of these books you can click on the highlighted title/author in the Full Title section.  

In the 'live' catalogue Click on the Full  title (or the number in brackets to the left) to look at the catalogue record for the 2009 edition of this book. Return to this tutorial.

 

The graphic displays details for 3 of the 5 copies of this book and its supplement.
You would normally now write down the Location (e.g. Barr Smith Main Collection) as well as the Call Number (e.g.612 T12p.12).

Location
The section in the Library where the book is located.

Call Number
Where (exactly) on the shelves to find the book.

Status
Whether the book is On Loan, On Order, In Process, or Just Returned ... (a particular recent date) etc.

In Process means the item is in the Library but not yet ready to go on the shelves.

Available - the book is in the Library, not out on loan.

On loan - Due on gives the date the item is due back from loan.

On Order - the library has ordered the item but it hasn't arrived yet.

Overdue - Due on gives the date the item was due back from loan

Renewed - Due on gives the new date the item is due back from loan

Just returned - the item was returned from loan recently, but may not be back on the shelves yet.

Due Time      Applies to Reserve items only.
 
 

Return to the live catalogue session. Click on next to look at The Catalogue record for the 11th edition of this book. If the catalogue session has closed (after 10 minutes of inactivity) you'll need to repeat the previous steps. Return to this tutorial.

To start another Catalogue search scroll up to the top of the Catalogue screen and click on the yellow New Search button, 

or down to the bottom of the Catalogue screen and click on the New Search link.

Catalogue Time Out
If you don't use an open catalogue session for 10 minutes the computer will return you to the Library Home.

Animated version of how to use the catalogue to search for a book by its title.

Limits (this section is optional)
You can add limits to restrict your search to a particular campus, or to electronic versions of a title. You can impose such a limit before you search or after your search.
 

Type microbiology into the Search for: box. Find Title - omit beginning ... in the by box if it isn't already showing. Click on Search.

The Catalogue found 129 items (in December  2008).

This search will find items with microbiology in the title (or Notes) field. These items could be in any format (print, electronic, microfilm, etc) and at any campus.

There are two sets of limits available.

A limit box is found in the same line as the Search for and by boxes. To view the limits available left click within the box or on the black triangle at the end of the box.

A list of the limits available appears. In this box you can restrict your searches to branch and campus libraries, electronic format, or exam papers.

Click on the Limit you want, then click on the Search button.

You can also use the More Limits option before you begin your search.
Click on the New Search button.
Click on the More limits button.

In the first Search Limits box you can restrict your search to different languages. In the second box you can limit by campus or branch libraries, e.g. Barr Smith Library, or collections within Barr Smith Library. The third box allows you to limit by date and the remaining boxes limit by the type of item.

To limit a search to recent items held in Barr Smith Library click on Barr Smith Library in the Location box.

Click on the Set Limits button.

You receive a limits warning.
Enter your title and click on the Search button.

Now the titles retrieved are limited to those in Barr Smith Library and so the number of items is reduced.

The limit will stay in force until you clear it.

You can apply limits after searching using Post Limits

At the top right of the list of titles found click on the Post Limit button. Click on Barr Smith Library in the Location section. Click on the Set Limits button

Post Limits will remain in force until you clear them.

Date Limits

You can set date limits on your searches.
 

Click on New Search at the top or bottom of The Catalogue screen. Search for Public Health as a title. Click on Post Limit. Scroll down to Date: and type 1999 in the first box. Click in the circle to the left of Range. Type 2006 in the second box. Click on Set Limits.

Now you have a list of items with the title Public health ... published between 1999 and 2006.
(The number of entries will vary as more items are added to the catalogue)

You should now know

How to search for a book (or other item) by its title

Find the collection, call number, and status from The Catalogue record

Distinguish between different editions of the same title

How to use limits

 

Logon to MyUni to answer Question 2.
Click on the right pointing arrow in the top right of the screen.
Move to Page 2.

Click on the link for Question 2.

Go to the next part of the tutorial Book Locations

Back to the previous section of the tutorial called Library Catalogue Login

Back to the Tutorial Table of Contents