Lesson 5:

Alphabetical and Other Indexes

Although keyword searching is a very basic and effective way to search, the catalog offers several other ways to look for books. The following indexes will be covered in this lesson:

Title Alphabetical
Author Alphabetical
Subject Alphabetical
Series Alphabetical
Library of Congress Call Numbers
ISBN

Alphabetical Searching

Alphabetical searching is a very efficient way to search the catalog. You will receive fewer results that do not pertain to your topic. However, Alphabetical searching is less forgiving than keyword searching if you do not enter your search terms correctly.

Please note: When you do an Alphabetical search you are NOT doing a keyword search. Boolean operators are not required and will not work.

Title Alphabetical

The Title Alphabetical index allows you to search for book titles in an alphabetical list maintained by the catalog. To use this index you must enter the exact title of the book in the text box. A typical Title Alphabetical search can be seen below.

After you have entered the title of the book into the text box and clicked on the Go button, the catalog will open the Search Results page and display an alphabetical list of titles. This list will begin with the title that matches or most closely matches your search.
The Search Results page allows you to view only brief information on any book in the list, in this case, title, collection, author and publication date. To see the full record for the book that interests you, click on the title of the book.
An example of the Search Results page can be seen below:

Author Alphabetical

The Author Alphabetical index allows you to search for authors in an alphabetical list maintained by the catalog. To use this index you must enter the author's last name, followed by his/her first name or initials into the text box.
A typical Author Alphabetical search can be seen below.

After you have entered the name of the author into the text box and clicked on the Go button, the catalog will open the Search Results page and display an alphabetical list of titles. This list will begin with the title that matches or most closely matches your search.
The Search Results page shows you the names of authors that match your search terms. It also shows the number of books (Titles) the library owns by that author. To see the full record for the book that interests you, click on the title of the book.
An example of the Search Results page can be seen below:

Subject Alphabetical

The Subject Alphabetical index allows you to search for subjects in the list of Library of Congress Subject Headings maintained by the catalog. To use this index you must enter the exact Library of Congress Subject Heading. You may omit any commas or dashes between words.
A typical Subject Alphabetical search can be seen below:

After you have entered the Library of Congress Subject Heading into the text box and clicked on the Go button, the catalog will open the Search Results page and display an alphabetical list of subject headings. This list will begin with the subject heading that matches or most closely matches your search.
The Search Results page shows you the subject headings that match your search terms. It also shows the number of books (Titles) the library owns on that subject. To see the full record for the book that interests you, click on the title of the book.
You may notice that within your list are cross references or see also references to related terms. Such references are a feature of the Library of Congress Subject Headings list.
An example of a typical Search Results page can be seen below:

Important!

Care must be taken when using the Subject Alphabetical index. If you are not using the correct subject heading, your search may be unsuccessful.
For example, the search "victorian houses" would fail due to the fact that this phrase is not recognized as being part of the Library of Congress Subject Headings list.
If you have difficulty using this index, please see a librarian for assistance.

Searching by Series

Books are sometimes published as part of what is known as a series. Books in a series are often about the same general topic.

For example, Time-Life publishes a series entitled American Country. This series includes books on various different aspects of the interior design style known as Country. There are seventeen books in the series ranging from quilting to cooking to antique furniture. The catalog allows you to search for books by the name of the series of which they are a part.

The Series Alphabetical Index

The Series Alphabetical index allows you to search for books that appear in a series. To search for a series enter the exact name of the series in the text box and click on Go.
A typical Series Alphabetical search can be seen below.

After you have entered the name of the series into the text box and clicked on the Go button, the catalog will open the Search Results page and display an alphabetical list of series titles. This list will begin with the title that matches or most closely matches your search.
The Search Results page shows you the names of series that match your search terms. It also shows the number of books (Titles) the library owns in that series. To see the full record for the book that interests you, click on the title of the book.
An example of the Search Results page can be seen below:

Searching by Library of Congress Call Number

There are times when you might wish to search by Library of Congress Call Number. The Call Number is a unique set of letters and numbers that is assigned to a book when it becomes part of the library collection.

The Library of Congress Call Numbers index allows you to search for books by call number. To search for a call number, enter the exact call number in the text box and click on Go.
A typical call number search can be seen below.

After you have entered the call number into the text box and clicked on the Go button, the catalog will open the Search Results page and display an alphabetical list of call numbers. This list will begin with the call number that matches or most closely matches your search.
The Search Results page shows you the call number, collection, title, author and location of the book. To see the full record for the book that interests you, click on the call number of the book.
An example of the Search Results page can be seen below:

Searching by ISBN Number

In addition to other types of searches, the catalog allows you to search by International Standard Book Number (ISBN). The ISBN number is a unique number that identifies a book and is used by publishers, wholesalers and book dealers all over the world.

The ISBN index allows you to search for books by ISBN number. To search by ISBN, enter the exact ten digit ISBN number in the text box and click on Go.
A typical ISBN search can be seen below.

After you have entered the ISBN number into the text box and clicked on the Arrow button, a search will be done to determine if any record in the catalog contains the ISBN you are looking for. If a match is found, the Full Record for the book will be displayed.
An example of the Full Record page can be seen below. Note that the ISBN number is highlighted in yellow.

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