Q. How do I use the Classic Catalog to find items?

Searching for Partial Titles

Even if you don't have the complete title, you can still search using the words you know by doing a keyword search. Keywords are any significant words in the title, the author's name, or the subject headings. You can enter any words, in any order, and the catalog will try to find a match. This is very similar to how Google and other Internet search engines work. For example, let's say you're looking for a book called something like “The Legend of Jim Morrison”, but when you search by that as a title, you don't get any results. Try a keyword search for the words legend, “jim” and “morrison”. You don't need to capitalize or worry about the order of the words, and you don't need to add any words like "and" or "or" between your keywords. In this case, you'll find the book Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend. You don't have to limit your keywords to the title. You can also search for the author's name, or the author's name combined with words from the title. Perhaps you're looking for a book you've heard about by Kazuo Ishiguro called something like "Never leave me," but nothing turns up under that title. Try entering just the words “ishiguro never” and you'll find his book Never Let Me Go.

Limit to a Specific Library

From the main Classic Catalog search screen

1. Click on the View Entire Collection drop-down menu and select your branch.
2. Then simply type in the appropriate keywords and click the Search Catalog button.

Find Materials in Different Languages

From the main search screen, click on the Advanced link (next to the Search Catalog button) and select the desired language from the Language box. To select more than one limit, hold the Ctrl key while clicking on your selections.

Items in a Particular Format (for example CD, DVD, video, or musical score)

1. From the main catalog search screen, click on the Advanced link (next to the Search Catalog button)
2. Select the desired format from the Material Type box. To select more than one limit, hold the Ctrl key while clicking on your selections.

How to Find Large Print Books

1. On the main Library Catalog search screen, select Subject from the second drop-down menu and type in "large type books" (this will bring up more choices than if you typed "large print"). Click on the Search Catalog button.
2. Click on Large Type Books
3. From the View Entire Collection drop-down menu, you may limit your search to a specific location or Adult/Teen Materials or Children's Materials Only.

* You may further limit your search by location, language, etc. by clicking the Limit/Sort Search button.

Keyword Search Examples

On the main Library Catalog search screen, you may also use Keywords to search for a subject (biography, fiction, etc.), title, or author.

1. Large type and biography or large type Grisham (you may omit the word "and").
2. Large type Tolkien will bring up approximately four Tolkien titles.
3. Large type and Roosevelt will bring up approximately 15 titles--some fiction and some biographies.
4. Large type and biography will produce approximately 544 biographies; if you limit this to the Main Library, you will view approximately 507 titles.
5. Large type Lovely bones will bring up Alice Sebold's novel, as well as her autobiography.

How to Save a List of Titles (Books, CDs, DVDs, etc.)

1. From your list of results, check the box under the book bag icon to the left of each item to be saved and click the Save Selected button at the top or bottom of the page.
2. Click the Saved Items button.
3. On the next screen, click the View Saved Items button.
4. Scroll down to see the list of the items you have saved. You may choose the format for the list by selecting full display, which gives you the author, title and publisher along with the list of which branch owns the item, brief display, or MARC (machine readable cataloging) which is really the code for the Library catalog software program. You can then print the list, email it to yourself, or save it to a disk.

To Email Your List

1. Enter your email address in the Mail To box.
2. Click the Submit button. The note, Email Sent, will appear in red when your list is sent successfully. You will receive your list from the Library Catalog by email.