Searching Library Catalogs

A library catalog contains records for all the items owned or licensed by a library and is typically searchable online. Every single type of library (academic libraries, school libraries, and public libraries) possesses a catalog of their collections. Catalogs also include circulation systems that are used to check out materials. Students can use their university library’s system to see if a book is available, to have books and other materials held for them to pickup on campus, or if they are an online student, sent to them via mail. Items in the catalog include books, documents, maps, videos, or audio recordings. Catalogs may also contain journals that they own digitally or in print, but not individual journal articles.

When to Use It

It is recommended that you use your college or university’s library catalog to search for items. As a student who is affiliated with that institution, you have access to more materials, can locate where those materials are stored, and request them.

Note that an academic library’s catalog:

• Does not contain the full text of any materials. However, some items may include a table of contents and a link to full text digital content.
• Does not contain specific articles. The catalog can only tell you whether a journal or other periodical title is available.

How to Use It

A catalog can typically be accessed through the library’s main page (for example https://www.fhsu.edu/library). From there, you can do a quick search using a discovery service feature, which often looks like a standard search bar and may say something like “Search the Library Catalog” or “Quick Search.” There may also be an option to click on Advanced Search close to the search bar to get access to other search options.

If you are an international student trying to access the library’s catalog outside of the United States, consult your institution’s library and ask if there are any additional steps needed. Some students and faculty overseas may have to use a custom URL (an example for FHSU would be https://search.library.fhsu.edu).

Search Types

Catalogs allow for searching by author, title, journal title, subject, and keyword as well as specialty numbers such as the Library of Congress call number and ISBN (International Standard Book Number).

Additional tips:

• Keyword searches are the broadest search, as they search all information in an item record. (The search tips in Precision Searching, are based on using keywords.)
• Subjects are a very specific set of terms that are helpful for precision searches. Often, the easiest way to find subject terms is to do a keyword search first and then look at the subject terms for those that are good matches for your topic. There is more about subject heading searching in Specialized Databases.
• The Advanced Search screen allows a few additional search capabilities, such as multiple search fields to narrow the scope of a search term. You can also limit by year range, language, location, or format.