Basic Search

The online catalog allows you to search for books using different indexes.  For example, you can search by author or title or keyword or series among other options.  Which index you choose depends on what you are looking for.   

Choosing the Right Index

Before you can choose the correct index, you need to know a little about how the online catalog is structured.  The catalog is composed of thousands of electronic records, each representing a book owned by the AVC library.  Each record is divided into a number of fields including: title, author, call number, imprint, description, series and subjects.   

When you use a keyword index to search for a book in the library you are searching in these fields.  Some keyword indexes search in only one field, while others search multiple fields.  It just depends on what you are looking for.  

Alphabetical indexes search through an alphabetical list to find what you are looking for.  Alphabetical searching,  will be discussed later in this tutorial.

For example, if you are looking for a copy of the book To Kill a Mockingbird, you could use the Title Keyword index.   This index searches the title field in the electronic book record where the words to kill a mockingbird would be found.

Below you will see what an electronic record looks like in what is called MARC format.  MARC simply means machine readable catalog.  You will notice that the words kill and mockingbird are highlighted.  This is the title field.  The number of the title field is 245.  But don't worry!  This isn't what you'll see when you use the catalog.  It's just a peek behind the scenes!

Using the Basic Search Mode

The Basic Search mode in the online catalog allows you to select from the following indexes:

• General Keyword

• Title Keyword

• Author Keyword

• Subject Keyword

• Series Keyword

• Name Keyword

• Title Alphabetical

• Author Alphabetical

• Subject Alphabetical

• Series Alphabetical

• Library of Congress Call Numbers

• ISBN

Below you will see an example of the Basic Search page.   Click on the down arrow in the Index box.  A list of available indexes will appear.  You may choose the index that best suits your needs from this list.

Each index in the list will be discussed in this tutorial.  We will begin with the General Keyword Index.

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General Keyword Index

• The General Keyword index is probably the easiest index to use.  It allows you to search more parts of the book record than any other index.  Therefore it performs a very broad search and returns a large number of records. 
  

• General Keyword is also the default index for the catalog.  It is the first index you see when you begin your search.
  

• To use the General Keyword index, type words that describe your topic into the text box to the right of the index box.  Then click on the  red Go button.  

Tip:  Do not input your search as a question or full sentence.  Also, do not use punctuation marks.  This will produce poor results.  

An example of a simple General Keyword search can be seen below.  

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Search Results Page

• After you have entered your search terms and clicked on the red Go button, the catalog will open up the Search Results page and display a list of book titles (and sometimes other materials) that conform to the terms of your search.
  
  
• The Search Results page will display the first ten titles retrieved by your search.  In the upper left corner of the page you will find the total number of titles retrieved.
      
• The Search Results page will provide brief information about the book, including the call number and whether it is checked out (Status).
  
  
• Below you will find an example of a typical Search Results page.

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Full Record Page

• The Search Results page allows you to view only brief information on a particular book. If you would like more information you will need to view the Full Record for that book.  Your search terms will be highlighted in yellow. 
  
  
• Please note: If your search only finds one book you will be taken directly to the Full Record for that book. 
  
  
• To see the Full Record for any of the books on the Search Results page, click on the title of the book.  A typical Full Record can be seen below:

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Important: 

• Because of the nature of Boolean searching, you may notice that some of the books listed are not relevant to your topic. 
   
• Always remember, when you do a General Keyword search, the computer is searching for your keywords in any part of the record.  Therefore, the words children and television may appear in a record, but not necessarily have any connection to each other or to your topic.

The Full Record page has four major sections.  

The top portion of the page shows the search boxes.  You may search the catalog just as you did from the Basic search page.  The following links in this portion of the page are of special interest:

• Refine Search--return to the Basic search page and change your search terms

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 This description includes information such as:

• Title--Title of the book
• Author--Author of the book
• Subjects--Library of Congress Subject Headings assigned to this book
• Imprint--Place of publication, publisher and date published
• ISBN/ISSN number--International Standard Book Number
• Description--Number of pages in the book, illustrations and size of the book
• Edition--Only if the book has different editions (2nd, 3rd, revised etc.)
• Contents--Table of contents (some records)
• Notes--Any additional information about the book 

The lower section, shown below, displays the Copy/Holding information for the book.   The example below shows that the library has two copies of this particular book.

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In this section you will find the following information:   

• Location--Antelope Valley College Library
• Collection--Location of the book (Reference Collection, Book Collection, Quest Collection or Oversize Collection).
• Call Number--Call number of the book.
• Status--Whether the book is on the shelf or checked out.  If the book is checked out, the due date will appear here.

At the far left of the page you will see more search options: