A Crash

Course in

Library Searching

There are two main things to remember

• Cataloging is very exacting

• Computers are very dumb

MARC

a few MARC fields of note

• 1XX Author• 130 Uniform Title• 245 Title• 490 Series Statement• 505 Formatted Contents Note• 650 Subject—Topical • 655 Genre

some LCSH are nuts

• Abnormalities, Human instead of Birth defects

• Cestoda rather than Tapeworms• Intervertebral disk displacement

for Slipped disc• Canada. Treaties, etc. 1992. Oct.

7 instead of NAFTA or North American Free Trade Agreement

But once you know how they work…

• Start with a keyword search till you find something likely, then steal the subject heading

Practice

Some Other Tricks

• Sort by publication date to get the most recent book

• Sort by GMD (aka format) to find what we have by an author in audio or large print

• Restrict by item type to limit your search

• Truncate with an asterisk * to find variations of a word

Further Reading

• Understanding MARC (I recommend this only if you are really, really interested): http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/

• If you are interested in how strange LC subject headings are, you may enjoy reading about Sandy Berman: http://www.sanfordberman.org/cityp/ber1t.htm

• Or one of his articles: http://www.sanfordberman.org/biblinks/progressive.pdf

Photo Credits

• Women in library: http://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/5748745311

• MARC cake: http://secure.flickr.com/photos/sundaykofax/321063042

• LCSH books: http://secure.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/4598206141

• Card catalog with man and woman: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/5882580951

• Workroom with card catalog: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/nypl/3110117236