Library tutorial for science
Section 2B. Find a known book in the Library catalogue
The Library catalogue lists books that the Library gets in printed or electronic form. When you know a book's details, you can search for it by title, author or keywords.
Title search
When you know the exact title, you can most quickly find a book through a Title search.
Question
What would you enter in the Title option to search for these books?
A. The blind watchmaker
B. The physics and chemistry of colour
C. Gripp, K. (1994) End moraines. In Cold climate landforms, ed. D.J.A. Evans, 255-267. John Wiley, Chichester.
Answer
A. Omit 'The' and enter blind watchmaker
B. Omit 'The'. Entering physics and chemistry of colour produces no result. Try physics and chemistry of color. Always watch for alternative spellings such as colour/color.
C. The book title (preceded by 'in') is Cold climate landforms. So search for cold climate landforms in the catalogue.
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Author search
Use the Author option when you want to browse all books by an author.
- Enter last name and first initial.
- Choose from the list of author name headings to get the display of books by the author.
QuestionWhat do you enter in the Author option to find books by
D. the contemporary biologist Richard Dawkins.
D. Enter dawkins r. You need to enter the initial "r" rather then the full first name "richard" because you can't be certain whether the author's full name has been used in the catalogue. Choose between the two Richard Dawkins by their dates of birth (in this case 1941-) or try both if necessary.
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Keyword (search engine style)
If you don't know a common author's initial or the exact title or are not sure of an organisation's exact name (is it University of Adelaide or Adelaide University?), consider using one of the keyword options. Keyword is often slower than Title because you need to scroll through more results.
- For example, use the Keyword (search engine style) option and enter any words from the author or title in any order. You'll get books that have all the words you enter.
- Other Keyword options are covered in section 4.
Question
How would you find a book by
E. the Animal Research Laboratories, CSIRO
F. Brown with Chemistry in the title
E. You can't be certain whether it's animal research laboratories csiro or csiro animal research laboratories so use Keyword (search engine style) and enter words in either order.
F. You don't know the exact title or author's initials so use Keyword (search engine style) and enter brown chemistry.
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Search results
Your search result may be a screen with brief details of several items or a Record view with full details of a single item. Click the book's title to move from the brief screen to this kind of Record view.
Look for:
- the location of your book - Barr Smith Main collection - see Collections and locations.
- the call number of your book - 576.84 H182c - see Locating material.
- the Status - Not on loan means the book has not been borrowed so may be on the shelf
 above a search results list - it sorts books by latest date, often useful in science.
- Print/Save options below the results.
At the Record view with full details, you can move easily to similar books in the Library.
- Click an Author's name (e.g. Hallam) to find his other books.
- Click Subject Headings (e.g. Extinction (Biology)) to find other books with the same subject heading and therefore on the same topic.
- Click Call Number (e.g. 576.84 H182c) to find other books with the same Dewey number (576.84) and therefore on the same topic.
Further on in the Record view you'll find extra links to Amazon, Google and other things. Be critical when you use these links. They are generated automatically and may have no connection with the original book and no authority.
Back to tutorial main page | Back to section 2A | Continue to section 2C
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