Sub sections:
2. Using the UNE Library catalogue
Use the UNE Library Catalogue to find books, (including electronic books), journals (plus online journals), videos, conference proceedings and other items held in Dixson Library and the Law Library.
Advanced catalogue searching techniques are available in eSKILLS Plus.
Contents
Getting started
Connect to the Library catalogue.
No username or password is required unless, once using the catalogue, you click on a URL in a catalogue record and it links to an item paid for by the Library for use by staff and students.
The top menu of the catalogue looks like Fig 1.
Fig 1 Basic Search Options
The Browse and Keyword search options are the ones you will use most often.
Browse searches take you to alphabetical or numerical lists for each search type. These include Title, Author, Subject, Call Number and Journal Title. Choose the entry which best matches your search. Rules apply in the way you type in a Browse search.
Keyword searches allow you to refine your search. You can combine words or phrases using a variety of search types including Author, Title, Subject, ISBN, ISSN and All. A Keyword search looks for words in any order and gives you a list of matching items.
The Reserve search is useful to see what your lecturer has added to the Reserve Collection. These are high use items which are available for short loan periods within the University libraries.
Browse search
The Browse search screen provides you with a number of choices of Search Type by means of a pull-down menu, including:
screen provides you with a number of choices of Search Type by means of a pull-down menu, including:- Title Search
- Author Search
- Subject Search.
A Browse Title search is the first screen you see when you go into the catalogue. To search for a book or other item by its title, you need only type the first few words of the title (or the whole title if you wish) into the box under Browse Search.
Omit articles such as "the", "an", and "a" if they are the first word in the title. You must also type the beginning of the title accurately.
For example, to find an item with the title The Team: Explorations in Group Processes, type either team explorations in group processes or team explor, but not The team explorations in group processes (Fig 2). Note that you can leave out punctuation, such as the colon (:), and ignore capital letters.
Fig 2 Entering a Browse Title search
When you have finished typing, click on the Search button or press the Enter key. Click on the title you need from the list displayed on the screen. Write down the Call Number so the item can be located on the shelves.
Journals in the catalogue
Use either a Browse: Title or a Browse: Journal Title search in the catalogue to look for journals held at UNE. Journals may be held in either paper or online (electronic) format. If the journal is held in paper then its Call Number will begin with P (for periodical). For example, Archaeology in Oceania has the Call Number P990/A669 – look at the map to find the P900s (on the Second Floor). You can see on the screen that UNE's Holdings for this journal are from Vol. 1, 1966 onwards and that Vol. 26 no. 1 and Vol. 27 no. 3 are missing.
If a journal is provided electronically, this is indicated by the words [electronic resource] or [internet access] after the name of the journal. In most cases these online journals are paid for by the University Library and access is restricted to UNE staff and students. A UNE username and password prompt will appear once you click on the linked URL (web Address or Location) in the catalogue.
Here is an example of how an online journal looks in the catalogue when the URLs are displayed:
This is saying that Journal of Accounting Research is available online in full-text in SwetsWise and JSTOR. Click on the URL in the catalogue to go directly to each one. Please note that not all issues of a journal are necessarily available online as individual publishing contracts vary.
Journal articles are not listed individually in the catalogue. To find journal articles on a topic, use journal indexes or abstracting tools, most of which are now available online. The next section of eSKILLS UNE, Finding journal articles will show you how to do this.
What can you do if you have a reference to an article which seems useful but is not available online in full-text? Check for the name of the journal in the UNE Library Catalogue as it may be available in print or online in a different package.
 | Finding journal titles using the catalogue Use the University catalogue to see which journal titles the library holds. This search includes electronically available journal titles also. Click on the Play button below to find out how.  |
If you know the author or editor of an item, you can perform a search by following these steps:
- Click on the drop down arrow below the Select search type box and select Author (Fig 3)
- Type the author or editor's family name, a space and the first initial (if you know it)
- Click on the Search button. The catalogue will then show you an alphabetical list of the authors who match your search criteria
- Click on the name of the author you require.
Fig 3 Performing an Author Search
A Subject search can help you find useful material about a topic of interest. Note that Subject searches depend on a controlled vocabulary, the Library of Congress Subject Headings (available online through DRA). Subject headings describe the whole content of a book and do not necessarily cover what's written in the individual chapters.
If you know the correct subject headings you can:
- Select Browse and then choose Subject from the dropdown menu
- Type your subject heading
- Click on the Search button
- Click on the best matching link to see a list of items about this subject.
If you don't know the right subject heading, you can perform a Keyword search, and then use the Full Record screen to identify the subject heading you need. Why bother with the extra steps? Because the Subject search will usually find you items which a Keyword search won't and will also match your interests more exactly.
Tips for using Subject Headings
Subject headings often have sub-headings attached. These can be used to limit your results to more relevant items. To take one example, if you use the subject term Music Australia in a subject search, the results will be limited by geographical area. The subject term Geography statistical methods restricts your search to geographic works with a statistical focus. If you use the subject heading Literature 17th Century, your results will be limited by time period.
It is also useful to know that adding the term periodicals to a subject heading will help you find journals about that subject, for example biology periodicals.
Full record & availability screen
No matter which Search Type you choose, when you have found something you want, you will need to see the details of each item so that you can locate it in the UNE libraries. The Availability screen shows you all the basic information you require, (Fig 4) including the:
- Call number: This is what you use to find an item on the shelves. Although the Law Library has one floor, Dixson Library has four floors. Once you have the Call Number, check Dixson Library's maps to locate the floor where the item is shelved. External students can also include the Call Number on Request forms
- Author
- Title
- Publication: If the item is a book, audio-visual work or a piece of software, you will need to note these details down so that you can include them in your references or bibliography.
- Location and Status: that is, where the item is kept and whether it is out on loan, immediately available or unable to be borrowed (non-circulating). This information is found below the bibliographical details for the book
Fig 4 The Availability Screen
If the screen includes the information that the book is Available, you know that an item is on the shelves and able to be borrowed. If the item you want is already on loan to someone else, the Status line will include information on when the item is expected back.
If you are an external student, you can still request an item already on loan. We will recall it and send it out to you when it has been returned. Internal students can place a recall on an item by going in person to the Loans desk. When the item comes back, you will receive a letter asking you to collect it from the library.
Keyword
Keyword Searches are a good place to start when you are looking for material on a topic:
- Click on the Keyword link.
- Choose All or a specific search type (for example Subject) from the dropdown menu.
- Type a word or phrase into two or three of the Words boxes.
- Use quotation marks to enter a phrase, such as "women executives". Otherwise the catalogue will look for women AND executives occurring somewhere in the same record, not necessarily together. This will result in less relevant items.
- Click the AND button to narrow your search. The catalogue finds only those items which contain both the first AND the second search terms.
- Click the OR button to broaden your search. The catalogue finds all records that contain the first search term OR the second search term OR both.
- Use NOT to restrict your search. The catalogue finds all records that contain the first search term, but NOT the second.
Let's use agribusiness in Asia as an example of how to do this:
- Click on the Keyword search
- Type the keyword agribusiness in one box and asia in the next box (Fig 5)
- Choose All as the Search Type for both terms
Fig 5 Keyword Search
Click on the Search button to see your list of matches (Fig 6).
Fig 6 List of Relevant Publications
Click on the Copies link to see Location and Status details (Fig 7).
Fig 7 Availability Screen
To view the complete record for an item (including subject headings and publication details), click on the More link (Fig 8).
Fig 8 Full Record Screen
Click on one of the Subject headings to search again by that heading and be taken to a display of all items which have been given the same subject heading. (Fig 9).
Fig 9 Subject List
If you wish to create a list of selected items to email, save or print, add a tick to the box labelled Select to add record to cart. To save your choices you then need to click on Save to Cart. When you have finished making and saving your selections, click on the Cart tab near the top of the screen to print, save or email your list.
Other Keyword Searches
A Keyword search allows you to combine a number of search types. A combined Author/Title Search is often the quickest way to find an item if you know both the author and title or if you do not have the full author or title details.
Below is an example of a Keyword search combining an author and title (Fig 10):
Fig 10 Author and Title Keyword Search
The use of AND, OR and NOT in this manner should be familiar to you from the previous sections.
Using All as a search type in a Keyword search allows you to search the maximum possible data. As well as searching author, title and subject search types it also includes information from other fields, such as the contents or abstracts. These contain useful additional search terms including the authors and titles of chapters of books.
Reserve
- Click on Reserve at the top of the screen.
- Select a search type from the drop-down box, either Course ID or Instructor.
- For a Course ID search, type in your course code. For example, SOCY 254-354 or LS 100 (include a space between the letters and numbers). For an Instructor search, type in your lecturer's family name.
- Click on the entry which matches your search. At the next screen click again on the unit code (Course ID field) to go to a screen which shows call numbers.
- Check the Location to see if the items are in the Dixson Library Reserve Collection or Law Library Reserve Collection.
- Write down the Call Number of the Reserve Collection item you want to borrow and go to the Loans Desk with this information.
Check the University Library webpages for more information on Reserve Collection loan conditions.
Renewing your loans
To renew an item online:
- Go to the UNE Library Catalogue
- Click on the tab called Your Loans & Renewals
- In the ID Number box, type the number underneath the barcode on the front of your UNE card. Don't forget to drop the "T" in front of this number. If you don't have a UNE card, you can calculate your 10 digit student number using some simple rules:
- if you have a nine-digit student number which begins with a 2 (eg 201012345), add another 2 to the beginning of your number (ie your number becomes 2201012345).
- if you have an eight-digit student number (one with 95, 96, 97, 98 or 99) at the beginning, add 20 to the start of your number (ie 95001234 becomes 2095001234)
- if you have a seven-digit student number which dates back from 94 or before, add a 200 prefix (ie the student number 9401234 becomes 2009401234).
- Tab to the Password box and type in your library password. This is not your UNE password. Try your birth date in the format ddmmyy (eg 220785). If this does not work, local students can organise a password in person at the Service Desk in Dixson Library during office hours. External students should ring the Service Desk on 02 6773 2458 or submit an online request for assistance using the Ask a Librarian Service.
- Click on the Submit button.
- To renew items, add ticks to the boxes to the right of each item. Next, click on Renew at the bottom of the screen. If there is no box this indicates that the item cannot be renewed. This is usually because it has been borrowed the maximum number of times or the item has been recalled by another borrower. The next screen shows you the new due dates for the items you asked to renew.
- Click on Logout when you are finished
Other databases & catalogues
The University catalogue allows you to do a quick search of Google, UNE MetaSearch or Libraries Australia.
You may search either Google, Google Scholar (for scholarly journal articles and conference papers) or Google Books.
UNE MetaSearch
Search across multiple databases and catalogues simultaneously and link to fulltext resources. You must be a student or staff member of UNE to access MetaSearch.
Libraries Australia
Search the combined holdings of the major Australian libraries (university libraries, state libraries and other major research libraries). Use it to find which libraries in Australia hold books and journals.
Other library catalogues
Elsewhere on the Library site, you will find a page of links to catalogues at Australian and overseas libraries. There are many different library catalogues so the commands will vary, but the principles outlined for the UNE catalogue can be applied elsewhere.
Summary
The following principles should guide your use of the UNE Library Catalogue:
- If you have the author's name or the title, you can use a Browse search to find the item you want
- Browse Subject searches will give you a list of items described by standard Library of Congress subject headings
- If you don't know the correct subject headings, you can use a Keyword search to find the best ones to try
- A combined Author/Title keyword search is often the quickest way to find an item if you already know the author and title
- Use the Reserve search to find out what items your lecturer has placed in the Reserve Collection
- Write down the Call Numbers of the items you want so that you can find them on the shelves (or request them if you are an External student).
The next few pages will deal with journal indexes and how these resources can be used to find information.
 | Self-test Try these quick self-test questions to assess what you have learnt from this module. |
