Using the Library Catalog

Search by Subject or Keyword

A subject search is used when you know the Library of Congress subject headings. Subject headings refer to specific terms which describe the content of the work. Subject headings may be names of people, places or events. From the Search Main Menu, select Advanced Search. You will notice that the Advanced Search allows you to search for terms by title, author, subject or keyword. You can use the Title search box when you know only a few words of a title.

You can combine a word from the title of a book with an author's name by using the AND selection from the AND-OR-NOT menu. You may type in your topic word(s) in the Subject word search box. This search will look for your terms throughout the subject index of the catalog. Your search results will be displayed by title in alphabetical order.

The Keyword search allows you to do the broadest of all search options on the Library Catalog. A Keyword search checks all indexes (Title, Author, Subject) in the catalog for matches to the search term(s) you enter.

Enter your search terms in the Title Word, Author Word, Subject Word, and/or Keyword boxes. Select the desired operators from the AND-OR-NOT menus as appropriate and click on the Search button.

 

 

 

Next: Record Detail

Library Tutorial:
Finding Books | Finding Articles
Using the Web for Research | Evaluating Web Sites