English: Texts Over Time 

LIBRARY CATALOGUE

No need to use capitals

Leave out punctuation

Use truncation * to find all forms of a word eg

feminis*
-finds feminist and feminism
colo*r
-finds colour and color

Use brackets and the word or for synonyms eg

Literature (gothic or horror)

Use quotes for phrases eg "literary theory"

Use subject heading links to find more books on the same topic

Below are the steps for finding books:-

To find books when you know the title, eg. from your Further reading list - Use the Catalogue Title search.

It is more unique than the author of the book.  You may have lots of authors with the same family name and initial

Check the following

Location - which campus make sure it is in at your campus -

you can request books from another campus, Use Request a Hold. Books will be  available at your campus in 48 hours

which collection - Is it for loan, or is it in Reserve (3 hour loan)

Call no. - Shelf no. you need all the complete sequence of numbers and letters to find your book

Status - Is it available or is it on loan - check before spending time looking for it

The Keyword search is the default search in the catalogue.

It finds ALL the words that you put in the search box in each record it retrieves.

Step 1

Think of 2 or 3 keywords to describe your topic

eg shakespeare  sonnets

this will find books about the sonnets and books of sonnets

But adding the word criticism to your search will only find books ABOUT the sonnets

Other keyword search examples - use the author, or, in some cases, the title of the work, especially if it is a classic

• plath sylvia criticism
• stoppard tom criticism
• Jane eyre criticism

Step 2

Sort your results by date.  The default is by Relevance, but this often provides books written in the 1950s as the top option.  Date is a good way to scroll through the results.

All catalogue records have subject headings.

These group books together that share the same subject heading.

When you find a relevant book for your topic click on the 'More information' button to see the list of subject headings

This can be an easy way of finding many more books on your topic, or alternative books if the book you want is on loan

For example

The subject headings for this title below are:-

Finding subject headings Method

1. Start with a Keyword search and find a book you think is very relevant to your research

2. Click on More Info about this record

3. Use the subject heading links to find more books on the topic

Call numbers also group books together.  This means you can browse titles on the shelf on the same topic.

In the organisation of English Literature and English Literature criticism both come together under the same number. 

This means you can find your books of poetry by Sylvia Plath next to all the Criticism about Sylvia Plath.

To find the number search on a title by the author eg Ariel

Below is a small sample of the long list of books on Sylvia Plath - so you can go to that call number on the shelf and browse the titles.