Searching the Library's Catalog

Basic Search / Guided Search

Title | Author | Journal Title | Subject | Call Number

• Omit initial articles in the title (a, the, at, das, el, le, etc).
• Omit punctuation.
• You do not need to capitalize, the catalog is not case sensitive.
• If you do not know the exact title go to the Guided Search page.
• Searches are automatically truncated - to find the book My dark places : an L.A. crime memoir you could enter : my (which will retreive all books beginning with my) my dark, my dark places, etc.
• In the Find This: box enter the title of the book (omitting articles).
• Click Search.

• Click Author in the Find Results in box
• For an individual author's name enter: last name, first name : musil robert
• You can also enter just the last name of the author.
• In the Find This: box enter the author's last name followed by first name.
• Click Search.

Journal Title Searches

• Click Journal Title in the Find Results in: box.
• A Journal Title search retrieves only serials (materials published periodically).
• In the Find This: box enter the journal title omitting initial articles and punctuation (same as a title search).
• Click Search.

Subject Searches

• Click Subject Browse in the Find Results in: box.
• You must enter a word or phrase in the Find This: box that is a Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH). Almost all of the records in the catalog have been assigned a LCSH. If you don't know the exact heading, do a keyword search on your topic, review and identify relevant records, look at the subject headings on those records, then simply click on the hypertext link of the subject heading. It is also a good idea to write down the subject headings relevant to your topic (from your keyword searches) so you can do subject searches on your topic in the future.
• If you would like a more detailed explanation of Subject Headings ask for assistance at the reference desk.

Call Number Searches

• The Esther Raushenbush Library is presently in the process of changing from the Dewey Decimal System to the Library of Congress Classification System (Government Documents use the SUDOC system). These systems organize library materials by subject. The video collection is not part of the above systems of classification.
• For LC numbers enter the call number in the Find This: box, if the number has a date at the end leave a space between the date and the last part of the call number : nk2406n7 1965