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.
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 lists of results for each search type. These include Title, Author, Subject, Call Number and Journal Title.
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 that you can find it on the shelves or request a loan if you a distance student.
Finding journals in the catalogue
You can use either a Browse: Title or a Browse: Journal Title search 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).
If a journal is provided electronically, this is indicated by the words [electronic resource] or [internet access] after the name of the journal. Click on the name of the journal and you will be taken to a screen which includes a list of links to the full text. These links usually look something like this:
Full text [01/03/1993 to 6 months ago]
Click on the green link to go to the full text of the journal.
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 More ... 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. Distance students should include the call number in their loan requests.
- Author
- Title
- Publication: this line includes information you will need to include in a list of references at the end of your assignment.
- Location: that is, where the item is kept.
- Status: This line tells you whether the item is out on loan, immediately available or unable to be borrowed (non-circulating).
Fig 4 The More ... 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 an email 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 your loan of an item, click on the link Loans & Renewals in the catalogue. You can also go to the Library home page and click on the Renew your loans button.
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 distance student.
The next few pages will deal with journal indexes and how these resources can be used to find information.
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Self-test
Try these quick self-test questions to assess what you have learnt from this module. |
