Searching Library Catalogs Key Takeaways

1. There are several ways to use a library catalog.

Library catalogs allow students to access, locate and request books, journals, maps, videos, and audio recordings. You can search for items by title, author, journal name, subject heading, call number or by a book’s international standard book number (ISBN).

2. Searching takes skill and practice.

Effective searching requires a set of keywords that can come from the main research topic and identifying the main concepts of your research question. Nobody gets perfect results every time, so don’t be discouraged if you have to try a few combinations to get the results you want.

3. Expand your search beyond the words in your research question.

There’s more than one way to come up with keywords. Using a thesaurus, subject headings, or adding a truncation (*) mark to a word’s root can greatly expand your search results. You can also broaden (or shorten) your options using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), quotation marks (“), or wildcard (?) symbols.