1. Revision of Joao Barretto’s Workshop A Searches (PDF file) Revised in Powerpoint for the iPac by Manly Horowitz April 1, 2004

2. How to Search the Library Catalog Find books and other library materials

3. At the Library Home Page, Click on “Find BOOKS: Library Catalog”

4. You will see an initial Catalog screen that shows the various searches you can do

5. Start an Exact Title Search: Type in “The Joy Luck Club” and click “GO”

6. Click on “The Joy Luck Club” at the top of the list of titles to see 7 items

7. Click on the second item –”The Joy Luck Club” for it’s full record

8. Note important information in this book’s record – for more record, pull down the bar to the right

9. Also check the important information in this part of the record

10. Let’s go back to the top part of the record

11. Note the Subjects of this book - Click the second one for all the titles the library has on this subject

12. There are 5 titles on this subject - Click on “Mothers and daughters - United States - Fiction” to see them

13. You can now see all 5 titles

14. To start a new search, there are two main ways - One way is to click on “Library Catalog”

15. Clicking on Library Catalog takes you back to the initial search page

16. The other way to start a new search is to use the options at the top of your current screen

17. First click on the arrow to show your search options – select one

18. Let’s select “Exact Title” and search again for “The Joy Luck Club”

19. This time click on the second title for the motion picture soundtrack

20. Check the full record to see this item’s location – the Media Center

21. For another new search let’s click on “Library Catalog” and return to the beginning search screen

22. Let’s do next a Title Keywords search – some main words you remember in a title

23. Type in bell and tolls, two words you recall from a title you want

24. Click on the first item of the list of title results

25. Note the different locations and call numbers for this book

26. Next, an Author search – We want to know what we have by Amy Tan - Type in Tan Amy (last name first)

27. We have 13 titles by Amy Tan – Click on Tan, Amy to view them

28. Click on the second title, “The Kitchen God’s Wife”

29. View the full record – 3 copies of the book are available

30. Let’s try an Exact Subject search - for the subject, “Latin America”

31. A list of exact subjects appears, with “Latin America” at the top

32. Clicking on “Latin America” brings up 22 titles – Note the date of #1

33. Let’s sort titles by publication date so the most recent come up first – Click on the arrow for sort options

34. Select “Publication Date” and click “Go”

35. Now the first item’s publication date is 1999, not 1974 - Let’s select the second item, published in 1998

36. In this record we can see a “Contents” area - For the rest of the record, pull down the bar

37. Now location information appears as well

38. Try another Exact Subject search – for items on (not by) Toni Morrison

39. Click on a subheading, “Criticism and Interpretation” (19 titles)

40. Click on the first of the 19, “Critical Essays on Toni Morrison”

41. Check this book’s full record

42. Let’s do another Exact Subject search – Type “Native Americans”

43. Zero results because our catalog doesn’t use this term - The “See” below tells us the term that is used

44. The term that is used gives 110 titles on our topic – Select that

45. The first items of the 110

46. Let’s try an Exact Subject search on the subject, “Aids”

47. “AIDS (Disease)” is the main term - Note the “See Also” lines below it

48. “See Also” refers to a closely related topic – Click on the first closely related topic

49. 2 titles for the closely related topic, “AIDS (Disease) in children”

50. Let’s now do a “Subject Keyword” search. Type in, “gulf” and “war”

51. From the list of subjects having gulf and war, click the one circled

52. There are 2 titles for this subject – Select the first

53. View the full record

54. Next, a “Keywords in Plays, Songs, Essays, Short Stories” search

55. We’re looking for the short story, “Red Pony” – Type that in

56. 5 titles come up. These titles are collections of works - of songs, short stories, etc., – Let’s select #5

57. The record here has a “Contents” area – “red pony” is highlighted

58. The contents area tells us this collection includes the short story, “Red Pony” by John Steinbeck

59. Let’s do another “Keywords in Plays, Songs,...” search. We want now Chekhov’s play, “The Seagull”

60. Select the first item, “Plays” by Anton Chekhov

61. “Contents” shows that this collection contains “The Seagull”

62. One more “Keywords in Plays, etc., search – We recall from a song title only 3 words – “turn” “I’m” “radio”

63. The cassette, “For the Roses”, comes up

64. Looking through “Contents”, we see that “For the Roses” has the song we want

65. To get the cassette, we need to go to the Media Center

66. Let’s now search for “Reserve Materials by Instructor”

67. Let’s say your instructor has a book on reserve you need – Type in her name, last name first, and click Go

68. Click on Redick, Mary at the top of the list of instructors for 11 items

69. Pull the bar down to find the book you want, “Cultural Anthropology”

70. Click on “Cultural Anthropology”

71. Note important information like circulation periods, availability, and the courses using this book

72. You can also search for reserve materials by course

73. Type in the course name (abbreviated) and number

74. Click on Math 840 at the top of the course list

75. Select the first item

76. Pull the bar down for “Copy/Holding Information”

77. Note circulation periods and other needed information

78. Let’s say we want a circulating book, but we see it’s checked out when we look it up in the catalog We can get the book by placing a hold on it. The following screen shows you how

79. Let’s say we want, specifically, Amy Tan’s “The hundred secret senses”, but it’s checked out

80. If you click the “Place a Hold” button, you can have the book held for you once it’s returned

81. After clicking “Place a Hold”, you are asked for your barcode and your phone number’s last 4 digits

82. Type in your information and click Login

83. You’ll be notified by mail when the book is available for pickup..

84. Now suppose we want a book that is circulating but is at another campus library We can request this book be sent to our campus library, again by clicking on the “Place a Hold” button

85. For this Downtown book to be sent to Rosenberg, click on “Place a Hold”

86. Fill in the information required and click Login

87. You should allow a maximum of 6 days for the book to arrive. A request made Monday through Wednesday should arrive in less time.

88. There is one more “Place a Hold” option A circulating book that is “On the Shelf” can be held for you if you are searching from a computer outside of a City College library. If you search in a City College library and the book is there, you must retrieve the book yourself. Perform the same “Place a Hold” procedure outside a City College library and have an “On the Shelf” circulating book held for you.