The Library’s Catalog – Basic Information
  1. Go to the Library’s home page, http://library.schreiner.edu/.
  2. Click on “Search the Library Catalog”, just under the horizontal red bar.
  3. Here you can find out if we hold something, like a book or journal, and how you can locate it in the library.

This is what the starting page looks like:

From here, you can choose to do

  1. a basic search (one text box only) or
  2. an advanced search (up to three text boxes) or
  3. a search for course reserves (those items your professor puts on reserve at the library for you) and
  4. if you are interested, you can see a list of new books in the library.

Using Basic Search

This search allows you to use only one text box to fill in information for the search. Use this search if you already know the title or author’s name.

A few things to remember about ‘basic search’ search results:

  1. Author, Call Number, and Subject searches are browses, which means it starts with the term you entered, and you can browse entries found before and after that term.
  2. Terms entered for the title search must start with the actual beginning of the title.
  3. Keyword and Journal Title searches look for terms anywhere in the title or item record, rather than just beginning with the word you entered.
  • About Keyword Searching in Basic Search
  • Terms "and" "or" and "not" can now be used between terms for one of the keyword search options.
  • Default operator between each term is ‘or’, instead of ‘and’.
  • If you want to search for all terms in one record, use the advanced search and enter the terms into different boxes.

Using Advanced Search

This search provides multiple boxes in which to type search terms that need to be limited to certain areas, as when you have the author’s last name and a keyword.

The drop-down menus for ‘Search in’ include limitations such as ‘keyword’, ‘author’, and ‘title.’

A few things to remember about ‘advanced search’ search results:

  1. Browse-able results will never be found via the ‘advanced search’
  2. DO NOT press “set limits” after entering info in the search boxes. This will erase everything you just did.
  3. Wait until you get your search results and use the “Post Limits” button or set the limits before entering your search terms.

Searching by ‘Subject’

  1. Use the ‘Advanced Search’ screen rather than ‘Basic Search’.
  2. In the advanced search, terms entered in the text boxes will search all parts of the subject heading, and the resulting list will be titles that have that term somewhere in their subject headings
  3. If you would rather use ‘Basic Search’ so you can browse a list of subjects, make sure the term you use is the first term in the subject heading.
  4. ***This can be difficult and confusing, so ask a librarian to show you how.

To better understand these instructions and the results they produce,
try these searches and compare results

Type of Search::

Basic

KW

“wild flowers” Texas

vs.

“wild flowers”

vs.

“wild flowers” and Texas

SUBJECT

Personal narratives

AUTHOR

Gilbert, Martin

SUBJECT

French language

CALL

NUMBER

PC 2129

vs.

PC2129 (with simple limit = videorecording)

A.V. DG 737

TITLE

Development of Western Civilization

vs.

The Development of Western Civilization

Type of Search

Advanced

Wild flowers (as a phrase) Search in : KW

AND

Texas (any of these words) Search in: SU

Personal narratives (as a phrase)

vs.

Personal narratives (all these words) Search in: SU

Gilbert, Martin (all these words) Search in: AU

vs.

Gilbert, Martin (all these words) Search in: Personal Name

French language (all these words)

vs.

French language (as a phrase) Search in: SU

Texas Hill Country (as a phrase)

vs.

Texas Hill Country (all these words) Search in: KW 

vs.

Texas Hill Country (as a phrase) Search in: SU

08 1350 8886

vs.

0813508886 Search in: ISBN

the development of western civilization (all these words ) Search in: TI

vs.

the development of western civilization (all these words ) Search in: SERIES
: