RDG: Reading and Study Skills: Catalogs

If you used a library 25 years ago, you might remember using a card catalog.  Today those have been replaced with online catalogs, but they still do the same thing the old card catalog used to do: point you to physical items (books, CDs, DVDs, audiobooks) that sit on the library's shelves. 

Many online catalogs are part of a library consortium, so when you search it, you're not only looking through your local library, but the collections of hundreds of other libraries in the system. 

Lake Land College Library uses a catalog called SHARE.  This catalog is used by the entire Illinois Heartland Library System, and includes more than 400 libraries in Illinois. 

Catalogs tell you how to find books in the library.  The most important piece of information they give you is the book's Call Number, which is like its address. It tells you where the book lives on the shelf.

You may have heard of the Dewey Decimal System.  This is the call number system that most public libraries use.  It is based on numbers, so that, for example, anything in the 400's is about language and anything in the 900's is about geography and history.

We don't use the Dewey Decimal System at Lake Land.  Instead, we use something called the Library of Congress classification system.  It is based on letters, so that every call number starts with one or two (usually two) letters. 

The main classes of the Library of Congress Classification:

These classes are further divided by a second letter.  So within Q (Science), for example, are different fields of science:

• QA = Math
• QC = Physics
• QH = Biology

These letters are further divided by numbers. Within QA (Math) are the different kinds of math:

• QA 71 - 90 = Instruments and Machines
• QA 150 - 272 = Algebra
• QA 440 - 699 = Geometry, Trigonometry, Topology

Here's the call number of an algebra textbook: QA 152.3 .H84 2004

The first thing to keep in mind when searching a catalog is to pay attention to which field you are searching. Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you want to know if we own a specific book (The Grapes of Wrath) or a specific movie (Citizen Kane)?
• Are you looking for something by a certain author (Stephen King) or musician (Paul McCartney)?
• Are you looking for information on a certain subject (diabetes)?

BASIC SEARCH

The answer to this question will determine which search field you choose:

• Any Keyword: This will look for your search terms anywhere in all the fields. This can bring up a lot of irrelevant things, so it 's best to use it as a last resort if you haven't had success with any of the other types of searches.
• Title starts with (in some catalogs this is called Title Alphabetical or Browse Title): This will take you to an alphabetical list of all of the titles in the catalog, starting with the search terms you entered. Use this to find specific titles that you're looking for.
• Author: This will take you to an alphabetical list of all the authors (or performers if it's music) in the catalog, starting with the name you entered. This is always organized with last name, first name..
• Subject starts with: This will take you to an alphabetical list of the official subject headings for the catalog, starting with your search term. (As with authors, names are always listed here as last name, first name.) 

ADVANCED SEARCH

In the Advanced search tab, you can:

• Conduct keyword searches
• Combine different terms
• Limit your results to a certain location
• Limit your results to a certain type of resource (such as books, or DVDs, or CDs, for example)

Keyword searches look for your search term or phrase anywhere in the selected field. For example, a Title Keyword search for "staplers" would not only bring up titles such as Staplers of the Midwest but also titles such as The Peaceful Stapler Revolt and My Travels among the West Asian Staplers. 

Combining Terms. You can also combine different terms in an advanced search. Let's say you're looking for books about child obesity. Instead of searching through all the subject headings on children or obesity, you can combine the two terms and look for things that deal with both. Make sure you pay attention to which field you're searching! (Title keyword, subject keyword, etc.) You can also use an advanced search to limit the location or format (book, video, recording, etc) of your search.

SEARCH RESULTS

Once you have a list of results, for each item on the page, you will see the Location, Collection, Call No. and Status.

• Local Availability is whether or not Lake Land owns the item.
• Collection is which section of the library the item is located. At Lake Land, this will be Stacks, Reference, Media Shelves, Paperbacks, Bestsellers. or New Materials.
• Call No is the book's location on the shelf (see above). If the book is a paperback or bestseller, it doesn't have a call no, but is arranged alphabetically by the author's last name. 
• Status tells you whether the book is checked out or currently available.

What do I do if Lake Land doesn't own an item I want? Click on the Request It. Login using your library card number and your PIN (the last 4 digits of your phone number) and then you can request to have the item sent here. If the item is On Shelf, this usually takes about 3-4 days at the latest.

How do I get a list of just Lake Land items? Sometimes, you might get a list of 150 books and you don't want to have to wade through each one to see what we have here at Lake Land. Click on Lake Land College under Assigned Branch.  

Don't give up if you can't find your search terms in the catalog.

There may be plenty of books that have a few pages on your topic, but not enought to warrant a mention in the catalog. Think about what type of book might discuss your topic, or something related to it. 

For example, let's say you're looking for information about Delphi, an ancient Greek city. You look in the catalog and see that no books come up under Delphi. Instead of giving up, think about what types of books might contain information about an ancient Greek city. Perhaps a book on Greek history? There are lots of books about Greek history in the library.

Use the index.  Once you find our section on Greece or Greek History, pick out some books and look in the back in the index to see if Delphi is mentioned in the book. Using this method, you may find several pages or even an entire chapter on your topic.