Keyword Searching in the Online Catalog

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Searching by Keyword

An online catalog record has several areas, called fields, in which information is input. Examples of these fields include Title, Author, Publisher, Subject Headings, and Notes. When you perform a browse search or a keyword title, author, or subject search, the system only searches the field that the search specifies. To search all available fields, the wisest thing to do is to perform a generic "Keyword" search. This is the easiest way to find conference proceedings. To begin, select the Keyword option from the Find menu.

Now, type important words that you know from the item that you want to find. These can be title words, author names, dates of publication, series numbers, places of publication, or anything else. Do not enter articles, conjunctions, or common words. If you enter a common word, you will be asked if you want to ignore that word.

The system will retrieve a list of titles or, if there is only one title that matches your specifications, the record for that item. Select the record that interests you from the title list by typing the line number on which it appears.

Once you have retrieved the record for the item in which you are interested, you will want to know which libraries hold it. Press ctrl-N until you have passed the UIUC Acquisitions and the UIUC Additional Information holdings. These will not give you useful information about the locations of the item.

Once you have located holdings information for the book, you might want to check its status. By typing the line number for the library in which you are interested, you can learn how many copies of the book are in that library, whether or not they circulate (Noncirculating materials must be used in the library), and, if they do circulate, whether or not they are available to be checked out. If an item is marked Charged, it has already been checked out by someone else.

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