Sample catalog search

When Luisa Mirano, whose topic was childhood obesity, entered the term obesity into the computer catalog, she was faced with an unmanageable number of hits. She narrowed her search by adding two more specific terms to obesity: child* (to include the terms child, children, and childhood) and treatment. When she still got too many results, she limited the first two terms to subject searches to find books that had obesity in children as their primary subject (see screen 1). Screen 2 shows the complete record for one of the books she found. The call number, listed beside Availability, is the book’s address on the library shelf. (When you’re retrieving a book from the shelf, scan other books in the area since they are likely to be on the same topic.)

LIBRARIAN’S TIP:The record for a book lists related subject headings. These headings are a good way to locate other books on your subject. For example, the record in screen 2 lists the terms obesity in children and obesity in adolescence as related subject headings. By clicking on these new terms, Mirano found a few more books on her subject.

Library catalog screen 1: Advanced search

Library catalog screen 2: Complete record for a book