Finding the Right Book Using the Library Catalog

Library Catalog / OPAC OPAC stands for Online Public Access Catalog. »

How do I navigate in the catalog? Search by author if you only know the author’s last name or if you only want to read books by particular author.

How do I search just by author? Type in the author’s name (last name, first name). Make sure you point the mouse arrow on the author button and click. Every item that is displayed on the next screen will be an author.

Notice the # 32 next to Shakespeare’s name when you searched by author. That meant that there were 32 different items in the library by that author!

How do I see the names of those 32 items?? Use the “select” button at the lower right corner of the computer screen.

We’re almost there! To read the library record of just one of those 32 books – choose the one you are interested in by highlighting it Then click the select button again at the lower right

From this screen you can read all the information about the book Title Author Publisher Place of publication Copyright Subjects Summary of the book

What if I know the title of a book I want to find? Search the same way as you did for an author, except this time type in the title of the book & click on the title button.

Any Other Ways to Search in the Catalog? Absolutley – Want a book by a particular subject – click on the subject button. Want a book that is part of a series – click on the series button.

Series? I’m not sure what that is Examples: The Series of Unfortunate Events: - Austere Academy - Bad Beginning etc. Car Classics: - Camaro: Chevy’s Fast Friend - Rolls Royce: Leader in Luxury

I Saw a Button labeled “Keyword”. When Would I Use That One? Clicking on keyword would give you more results than just clicking on subject. Look at the following examples.

Keyword Will make a “hit” on every title in the library that has the word that you have chosen whether the word chosen is a subject of the book or not The word just needs to be present somewhere in the record – table of contents or summary.

“Subject” – Dogs – 10 choices

“Keyword” – Dogs – 84 choices

What is the “Bookbag” button? Bookbag works just like the bookbag you carry around with you. But instead of having pounds and pounds of books to carry around the computer will just store the information you need.

Tell Me More Suppose you are doing a project on Crystals for science. You search by subject and find 4 titles.

Next Suppose you select the 1 st book in the list and decide that it is helpful. Click on the bookbag button on the right side of the catalog page.

I can’t see that the clicking that button is doing anything at all ! After you have selected all the titles you are interested in and clicked the bookbag button for each you are ready to see what is in your bookbag.

When you are finished with your selections - Click the bookbag button on the top of the library screen. You will now see what you have placed in the bookbag.

Is that All?? No Way – You now have the option to print out a list of your choices with a summary or without. This is important when you are doing research for taking notes or writing the bibliography.

With a summary (annotation)

Without an annotation (or summary)

One Final Word When looking for a Scholastic title – remember – all books in the reading program will have ** after the call number. Example – FIC ALE** or MYE**