Guide to Searching the Library Catalog

Overview

The University library system was established in 1904 to serve the needs of the faculty, students and staff. Today it houses over 4 million items, including books, periodicals, microforms, government documents, maps, slides, electronic resources, and other materials.

The library system includes Waldo Library (Main Library) and three branch libraries: Education Library, Music and Dance Library, and Archives and Regional History Collections.

Basic Search

Use when you want to find:

A book by title
A book by an author
A specific magazine or journal that the library owns

Tips

Use box at right for search type: author, title, journal title, etc.
Personal author: last name first
Corporate author: do not invert the name
Title: omit initial articles (a, an, the, la, die, das, etc.)
Journal title: omit initial articles
Call number: include punctuation

Guided Keyword

Use when you are:

Looking for books by topic, keywords
Not familiar with using Boolean connectors and need guidance in constructing a search

Tips

Use ? for truncation
Select "as a phrase," "any of these," or "all of these" from the drop-down menu:
Select field to search if desired
Select Boolean operator (and, or, not) to combine with next set
You must click "Search" to execute search

Keyword Boolean

For advanced searchers who are:

Looking for books by topic, keywords, or a combination of topics, or an author's name and title words; requires use of Boolean connectors.

Note: Available as a pull-down option in the Quick Search and Basic Search modes.

Tips

Use ? for truncation
Use " " for phrases
Use Boolean connectors to combine topics; Boolean operators (and, or, not)
Use ( ) parentheses around terms connected with "or"
Use to limit a term to a specific field, e.g., tkey for title keyword nkey for author name keyword

Keyword Relevance

Use when you want results ranked by a relevance formula. Use of Boolean operators is not required.

Note: Available as a pull-down option in the Quick Search and Basic Search modes.

Tips

Use ? for truncation
Use " " for phrases
+ indicates term must be present
* indicates important term (or must be ranked high)
! indicates term must not be present
All words entered are searched but not always found in retrieved citations do not use Boolean operators

Course Reserves

Tips

Click one item from one (or more) of the following drop-down lists: Instructor, Department, or Course
Click "Search" button to begin your search
You cannot limit a Course Reserve search

Simple Limits and More Limits Options

Allows you to narrow your searches by restricting them to certain years, languages, types, mediums, or locations within the WMU library system

Tips

Limits may be set for all search types except Author, Subject, or Call Number
Limits will remain in effect until they are removed
There are two ways to set limits: Available on the Basic Search screen, the "Simple Limits" option is a quick way of limiting your search to library location or some common types of library materials (e.g., children's books). Available in both the Basic Search or Guided Search screens, the "More Limits" option gives you a complete list of choices for limiting your search (e.g., language, date, etc.).
To apply limits to results AFTER completing a search, click on the Post Limit button on the upper right of the screen containing your citations.

Viewing Your Search Results

The "arrow" icons allow you to move sequentially from one group of titles or citations to another. You can also jump ahead in large increments in a long list by clicking on a number range that appears between the arrows.

In a title list, you can display the Brief View of a book record by clicking on its title. Brief View provides basic bibliographic information (author, title, date, etc.), as well as location and circulation status of the item.

The Full Description view displays ALL bibliographic information including subject headings, notes, table of contents, ISBN/ISSN, as well as location and circulation status of the item

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