How To Find a Book
and other materials in the CAT and elsewhere
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(Click the ASK! button above to ask a question about finding a book.)
Find books and other materials at Penn State by searching in the CAT (the online catalog). Begin your search by choosing the BROWSE page to search by title, or the KEYWORD page to search for books on your topic. Find details on specific types of searching below. Write down the CALL NUMBER and LOCATION (as well as other pertinent information) of the most relevant books to find them on the shelf.
How Do I Find:
Books by title (I know the title)
Use the BROWSE page and enter the title of the book. (Do NOT include initial articles "a", "an," or "the.") Press the TITLE button to execute the search. Your title should appear as the second entry on the list.
How does it work? From the BROWSE page, the computer searches the words you type in sequentially, beginning from the first word and continuing with each word in the order you entered them.
Books by title (I can't remember the exact title)
Use the KEYWORD page and select "title" from the pulldown menu on the left. Enter the most relevant words from the title that you can remember, and press the SEARCH CATALOG button to execute the search.
If the words you searched are common ones, you may have to look through many items on the "Brief Titles" list you retrieve. To narrow it down, include another piece of information you know about the book in your search. For example, add an author's name (even just a first name) on a separate line and choose "author" from the pulldown menu on the left.
How does it work? From the KEYWORD page, the computer searches the words you typed into the box in the fields you selected under "search type." Under the "title" search type the computer looks for the word or words you typed only in the titles of books. Under the "author" search it looks only in the author fields.
Use the KEYWORD page to enter the best terms you can think of for your topic. Type each word or phrase on a separate line. Select "Topic: Title + Subject" from the pulldown "search type" list for each line. Press the SEARCH CATALOG button to execute the search.
How does it work? The term or phrase on each line will be searched within the field you selected from the lefthand pulldown menu. The "Topic: Title + Subject" search will retrieve terms from the title field, plus the subject headings fields, plus the notes fields. "Keywords anywhere" searches for the terms in all of the fields in the topic search plus all other fields including the author, publisher, etc.
The computer will then combine the terms it found on each line with the "AND" command - so each item in the resulting list will have ALL of the terms you entered.
Use the BROWSE page to search for authors. Enter the last name FIRST, then the first name. Press the AUTHOR button to execute the search. Your author's name should appear as the second entry on the list.
How does it work? The author's name is entered into the database last name first. The computer searches the author field sequentially from left to right, so the last name must be entered first. Pressing the AUTHOR button instructs the computer to search in the author field. (Note: If you press the "Enter" key by mistake, the computer will search in the title field and will not find your author's name.)
Note: If your author has a unique last name, or if you don't remember the full name, you can also search for an author on the KEYWORD page. Word order doesn't matter on the keyword page, so you can enter the names in any order. Select "author" from the pulldown menu on the left and press the SEARCH CATALOG button to execute the search.
If you have the call number and location of a book, but don't remember the title or other information, choose the CALL NUMBER page. Enter the call number and select the location from the pulldown menu.
How does it work? The computer reads the call number sequentially, left to right, and does read each space and punctuation mark.
Books by subject heading (LC or MeSH)
Each book or other item in the CAT is assigned specific terms that represent the subject areas covered by that work from either Library of Congress (LCSH) or Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). When you find these terms in the detailed CAT record, you can link directly to a list of other works that use that subject heading to find additional information.
If you know a specific LC or Medical subject heading, go to the BROWSE page and enter the term. Press the appropriate button, "LC SUBJ HEADING" or the "MEDICAL SUBJECT" to execute the search.
Search as you would above on the KEYWORD page, then choose the library from the dropdown menu under "Optional Limits." This is an effective strategy for limiting your search to books and other materials available at the various campuses, and to the branch libraries at the University Park Campus. Caution: For the subject libraries in Pattee and Paterno Libraries, you will limit your materials to Reference books and other specialized collections and materials, but you will NOT search the circulating books in the stacks.
Journal Titles, Newspapers Titles, and Magazine Titles
Journal, Newspaper, Periodical and Magazine titles can be found by going to the BROWSE page, selecting the "exact" radio button and entering the title, then pressing the "Journal Title" button to execute the search. Your title should appear as the second entry on the list. Look at the "Summary Holdings" statement at the bottom of the record to find out if the library has the volume and year you are looking for.
How does it work? All items that come out periodically, whether on a monthly, daily or other basis, are searchable under the "Journal Title" button. You may also search these by using the TITLE button, but you may also find books and other materials with the same or similar titles.
Note: The CAT does NOT index the ARTICLES in magazines, journals or newspapers. Use a database from the Articles and More page to find the citation, THEN return to the CAT to see if we have the journal title.
Use the KEYWORD page to search by title, composer or recording artist. Then, under the "Optional Limits" use the "Material Type" dropdown menu to select "Audio Material." Press the SEARCH CATALOG button to execute the search.
How does it work? Your keyword request will retrieve all audio materials, including CD's, cassette tapes and LP albums.
Use the KEYWORD page to search by title. Then, under the "Optional Limits" use the "Material Type" dropdown menu to select "Video Material." Press the SEARCH CATALOG button to execute the search.
How does it work? Your keyword request will retrieve all video materials, including DVD's, videotapes and videodiscs with that title.
For Suggestions/Additions/Corrections to "How to Find a Book," contact Instructional Programs.
The Pennsylvania State University @ 2003
Last updated February 11, 2004.
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