Getting Started: Searching the Library Catalog

The library catalog is a great place to start your research. Here are some tips to make searching more effective:

1. Make sure that you sign in. This allows you to see your access options for library materials, save searches, set notifications on saved searches, and save items to your favorites.
2. Use Boolean operators if you're doing a keyword search. For example:
   • Medieval women AND mysticism - the catalog will return only materials that mention both search terms.
   • Medieval women AND (mysticism OR spirituality) – this broadens your search to include materials that discuss either mysticism or spirituality alongside medieval women.
   • Medieval women AND mysticism NOT heresy – this will narrow your search results by excluding materials that mention heresy.
   • Make sure that you enter Boolean operators in all caps: AND, OR, NOT
3. Use truncation and/or wildcards. For example:
   • Entering the search term mystic* will return results for mystic, mystics, mysticism, etc.
   • Entering the search term wom?n will return results for woman, women.
4. Group your terms using parenthesis to do multiple searches at once. For example:
   • ("female mystics" OR "women saints") AND "medieval Europe."
5. Narrow your results to a specific genre, place, or time. For example:
   • "Medieval women" AND "England" AND "12th century."
   • "Female mystics" AND "France" AND "Middle Ages."

How To Read Call Numbers

This is an explanation of how books with Library of Congress call numbers are sorted.  This gives a better understanding of Library of Congress shelving.

1. The first line is always a letter line and is filed alphabetically.
2. The second line is a whole number line and is filed numerically.
3. Sometimes the second line has a decimal and continued on the same line or the third line.  Anytime you see a decimal point, always take each space separately.
4. Other lines may include volume numbers, copy numbers, dates, or a combination.
5. No dates come before a date.