Module 7: Conducting a Search in the Tempe Public Library Catalog

 

Tempe Public Library's Catalog works very much like the internet does. When you wish to navigate around the catalog, you do so by left-clicking on your choices. Here is a screenshot of the main page for the catalog and a discussion of the various options follows the screenshot.

Best Sellers: The best sellers button takes you directly into a list of cataloged best seller books.

Featured Lists: These are various book lists that people often ask about.

My Millenium: This is the link you would take in order to access your own library card account. You will need your library card number and pin number in order to access your account. You can access this from your own computer at home. Pin numbers are assigned at the circulation desk. 

Home: This will bring you back to the main page when you are on any other page in the catalog.

About Us: Contains basic library information, hours of operation, phone numbers, and location.

Give Feedback: A short form you can fill out with suggestions or comments for the library.

Suggest a Title for Purchase: You can fill in your suggestion for a book purchase and submit it to the library. You will need your library card number and pin to complete this form.

Other Databases: This takes you to the links for the various databases that the library subscribes to. There is an abundance of information to be found in these databases. You can access these databases from the library through the catalog, or from your own home through the library catalog on the internet. If you are accessing the databases from your home, you will be asked to submit your library card number and pin number.

Help: Like all the other programs you've been using, the catalog has a help section.

Tempe Public Library Catalog Search: This is the area where you will conduct your searches of the library's catalog.

Along the bottom of the screen, you have some of the same choices that are given as buttons along the top. There is also the link for "KidsOnline", the child-friendly version of the catalog.

Conducting your search

When you want to find something in the catalog, you can search for it by several different methods. When you left click on the selection arrow, you can see what kind of searches you can do. The catalog will also let you limit the search. The screenshots below show you the different types of searches you can do and the different limiters you can add to your search.

                                    

Useful things to remember when searching;

  • Using a keyword will find any appearance of that word in the catalog, whether it's part of a title, author, subject or item description. 
  • If you are looking books up that were written by an author (ex. Charles Dickens), you want to do an author search.  If you want to find books -about- an author and his life, you would do a subject search.
  • When doing an author search, always enter the last name followed by the first name.                           (ex. dickens, charles)
  • If a book title starts with an article ("a", "an" or "the") don't include the article in the title search. (ex. for "A Tale of Two Cities" simply enter "tale of two cities" in the search box)
  • If you do not know the first words in a title, you won't find the right title by doing a title search.(ex. putting "two cities" in as a title search, will not retrieve the famous Dicken's novel "A Tale of Two Cities", but it will retrieve "Two Cities" by John Edgar Wideman and "The Two Cities: Medieval Europe, 1050-1320" by Malcolm Barber)
  • Series Title is useful for finding book series such as the "Hardy Boys" series or the "Star Trek" series.

Try playing with the catalog and do both an author search for "Mark Twain" and a subject search for "Mark Twain". Note the different types of books you find with each search.

Module 8: Tips on What to Do When You Get Stuck

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