Research Notes #7: A GUIDE TO SEARCHING THE ONLINE CATALOG

The Online Catalog includes materials located in the Rutgers University School of Law Library - Camden.

The Online Catalog contains:

• Records of books, Congressional hearings, periodicals, video cassettes, and some manuscripts, and other archival materials.
• the location and availability of each item in the database, with the exception of continuations

• Individual articles in the journals
• Some U.S. government documents
• Some United Nations documents

GETTING STARTED

Begin your search at the Main Menu. To display the main menu press N for New Search.

General hints at good searching:

• Always check your spelling. Use the backspace key to correct errors.
• Capitalization and punctuation are ignored
• When in doubt, ask a librarian for assistance!

An author can be a person, and organization, corporation, a country or a conference. When searching by author, you can also search for the names of translators and editors.

From the Main Menu

• Type A
• Type the exact name of the author, last name first
• Press [Return]

• aabenberg
• american bar association
• association of american law schools
• united states congress

An unsuccessful search results in the message "your entry would be here." If none of the displayed choices is useful, try the following:

• Shortening the author's name
• Using a variant spelling, e.g. mckenzie or mackenzie
• Omit or include prefixes that are normally part of the name.

Title searches will retrieve both individual titles and the title of a series, but not titles of articles in journals.

From the Main Menu

• Type T
• Type the title, beginning with the first word
• Press [Return]

• Initial articles are not needed, e.g. "a", "an", or "the".

• Shortening the title, such as "time" instead of "time magazine"
• Spelling out numbers that appear in the title
• If you are unsure of the exact title, use the Keyword search option.

Subjects can be topics, persons, places, or organizations. Most subject headings are based on the Subject Headings for the Literature of Law and International Law, and the Subject Headings of the Library of Congress. You may enter a complete subject heading, or browse by using a shortened form of the heading.

From the Main Menu

• Type S
• Type the subject heading
• Press [Return]

• If you are unsure of the subject heading, use a Keyword search.

Keywords can be single works or a combination of words in titles, subject headings, contents notes, and other notes.

From the Main Menu

• Type W
• Type the word(s) you would like to look for
• Press [Return]

When you enter more than one work, the online catalog assumes that you want both to be in the records retrieved. It will not return any record that has only one of the words. If you enter an "or" between words, the catalog will search for records that contain at least one of the words. Keep in mind that keyword searches can be lengthy. Avoid searching for words or phrases likely to have many entries, e.g. "united states".

LIMITING SEARCHES

Once you have done an initial search, you may limit the results by or more of the following:

• Language
• Year of publication
• Type of material
• Words in the author, title, publisher, or subject headings

Search for the phrase "social security" in a keyword search. This will retrieve many records. If you then limit the search to items published after 1990, your search will have fewer results.

From the Main Menu

• Type W (To initiate a keyword search)
• Type "social security", press [Return]
• Press L (To initiate a Limit)
• Press Y (Limits by year of publication)
• Press A (To limit after a date)
• Type 91, Press [Return]
• Press F (To find records published after 1991)

If your search finds more than one entry, a browsing screen will display. Choose the number corresponding to the entry you with to view. This will display a record with information about the item.

The information enclosed by the box gives location, call number, and status of the item,. The status area will tell you if the item is available, or out to another borrower and when it is to be returned to the library.

At the bottom of all screens is a list of actions you may take. You may have to press "O" (other choices) to view all of the available options.

ENDING YOUR SEARCH

If you wish to clear the screen when you are done, press "N" for "New Search". Please to not turn off the equipment.

GC, 2/92