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CHAPTER 4: The Catalog (Find Books and Media) This chapter introduces the
computerized catalog of Albertsons Library which is linked on the home page
under: Find Books and Media
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First, notice that the catalog lists the holdings of several libraries, Boise State University Albertsons Library, the West Campus Library, and the Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICFL). Most of the books you will need for university projects will be in the BSU Albertsons Library collection, which includes thousands of periodicals, over half a million books, and millions of microforms, government publications, videos, DVDs, CDs, and audio cassettes. How, amidst all this abundance, do you find the items that might help you answer your particular research question?
Actually,
the catalog can be searched with three different searching programs:
QUICK SEARCH, BASIC SEARCH, and ADVANCED SEARCH. Since your
logon automatically takes you first to QUICK SEARCH, we’ll start there.
The next level of searching is BASIC SEARCH. The display below
reveals that
BASIC SEARCH offers a wide range of search options. Since so many choices can be confusing, let's spend some time sorting things out. First, notice that BASIC SEARCH is organized into three boxes: Search for, Quick Limit, and Search by.
Note that the Search by box does contain a subject-search option called Subject Browse. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this option only recognizes Library of Congress subject headings, and they must be typed as they are printed in Library of Congress Subject Headings. (For the source of Library of Congress subject headings and an explanation of their use, see CHAPTER FIVE.) Another approach would be to search under Keyword within Subject, which will allow you to search a subject without knowing exactly how the Library of Congress arranges an entry. Given these choices, the best way to search for books on a particular subject is to use Keyword Search or Keyword within Subject, using your keywords as subject headings. A first glance at the results of such a search can be startling. For example, a Keyword Search using the words Roman Empire Augustus results in a list of … over 4000 titles. (Yikes!) The reason for this large number is that the titles are ranked by relevance. This means that the titles at the top of the list include the highest number of your keywords, the titles further down the list have fewer, and the titles that have the fewest of your keywords come last. An alternative to Quick Limit also is available. The Set Limits button in the lower right corner of the BASIC SEARCH display takes you immediately to this screen: It enables you to limit your search by Location (e.g., BSU Curriculum Resource Center), Medium (e.g., videorecording), Item Type (e.g., Musical sound recording), Language, and Place of Publication. When establishing limits to searches, remember three things in particular: (1) QUICK LIMIT and LIMITS cannot be used at the same time; (2) QUICK LIMIT and LIMITS can be used only with Title, Journal Title, and Keyword searches; and (3) Limits are retained until they are deliberately removed. This last reminder is perhaps the most important of the three because limits that you set for one search may make it impossible to find any items with a subsequent search. To remove limits, click on the Remove Limits button at the bottom of the LIMITS screen. ADVANCED SEARCH is the third way to search the catalog, and as the screen display below reveals, it is the most powerful and flexible of the three.
First notice that ADVANCED SEARCH enables you to search for keywords in so many different ways and to use And, Or or Not as Boolean connectors. These options are not available in QUICK SEARCH, and BASIC SEARCH permits only the most general keyword searches. ADVANCED SEARCH also has the same LIMITS options as BASIC SEARCH. Simply click on Limits in the lower right corner. The form taken by the displayed results of a search depends on the kind of search that was done. For example, browse searches provide alphabetical lists with links and limited navigational buttons. Most other displayed results provide two lines for each title. The top line includes title, author, and publication date. The second line gives the call number or location information and status, for example, the due date if checked out. Clicking on the title line displays the bibliographic information about the publication. The default display is the “detailed view” with complete bibliographic information as well as subject headings, any notes and table of contents. The “brief view” gives only basic bibliographic information, physical description, and location information. The “staff view” is the technical description of the book that is useful to library staff.
The results pages often provide navigation buttons so that you do not have to go back to the beginning each time you want to conduct a new search. The bar will give you the search you conducted and drop down menus to change the search. If the search result is large, there will be a number bar that allows you to jump from page to page. There is also a drop down box that allows you to change the number of records displayed at one time. Additionally, there is a box to sort the results by author, title, date descending (new to old), and date ascending (old to new). Click on link to go to the
Assignments page and print Assignment FOUR |
Once
you have decided on a research question and determined its keywords, a standard
place to begin looking for answers is in books related to your topics. In the
past, this step usually meant a trip to that old library standby, the card
catalog. The Library has done without a card
catalog. Instead we have an
OPAC, which is short for Online Public Access Catalog. In other words,
the catalog to the Library collection is computerized. 
