Catalogs: Learn to search library catalogs effectively to locate books and other relevant materials
Finding Books in the Library Catalog
The main search box on the Library home page will retrieve material from several different sources: the CU Library catalog, article databases, and library web sites.
Once you're in the catalog, you can choose a "simple search" (single search box) or an "advanced search."
The "All Fields" search will retrieve matches for your search terms wherever they appear in the description of an item, but you may use the pulldown menu to the right of the search box to limit to title, author, subject, publisher, or call number.
The Cornell University Library uses Library of Congress Subject Headings as the standard for subject searching. Limit your search to Subject to retrieve items that contain your terms as part of their LC heading.
If you find one book relevant to your subject, you can identify others by clicking on the subject heading in the record for that book:
Clicking on the subject heading will reveal more books and films about that same subject.
Historic books and images
Statue of Greyfriars Bobby (1855-1872), by William Brodie, 1872, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Greyfriars Bobby was a terrier who spent 14 years guarding the grave of his owner in Edinburgh. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Finding Books
The Cornell University Library uses the Library of Congress classification system.
Finding Books in Olin
Pay attention to the call numbers and note whether the material is shelved in the regular, oversized (+), or double oversized (++) sections.
