Professional Software Online Catalog

General Instructions

Select the type of search you want to perform. Then, enter search terms per advice given below and click on "Search". Records will be displayed in this white area now occupied by "help". The records will be shown in groups of 20. You can move forward or backward by clicking on "Next 20" or "Prev 20."

To print records currently displayed in this box, or to print this help, click anywhere in this box to make its contents the focus of your browser's attention. Then, invoke the browser's "print" function.

To make this help reappear at any time, click on "Help".

Title Search

For "search terms", enter as much of the title as you care to, then click on "Search". The computer will show you the catalog in title-order, positioning you at the title that most closely matches whatever you've entered. You can move forward or backward from there.

Author Search

For "search terms", enter the author's name, either as "John Smith" or "Smith, John". (A comma after the last name is necessary if you are entering the first name last). If you are unsure of the spelling, enter the first few letters of the author's last name. The computer will show you the catalog sorted by author, positioning you at the closest match on whatever you've entered. You can move forward or backward from there.

Subject Search

For "search terms", enter as much of the desired subject heading as you care to. The computer will show you the list of subject headings currently active in the catalog, positioning you at the heading that most closely matches whatever you've entered. If you see a subject heading that interests you, click on it. The computer will display a list of all items filed under that heading.

Keyword Search

For "search terms", enter words found in the titles, subject headings or author-names of items you want. When you click on "Search", the computer will show you all items linked to the words you've entered.

Tip # 1:

Enter just the first few letters of a word rather than the entire word. For example, if you want books on "surgery", enter SURG as a keyword rather than SURGERY. So doing will get you books with the word SURGEON or SURGICAL in the title in addition to books having the word SURGERY.

Tip # 2:

Unless you join your keywords with the word "or", the more keywords you enter, the fewer hits you'll get. For example, if you enter "CARDIAC SURGERY", you'll get fewer hits than if you entered "CARDIAC" alone or "SURGERY" alone. That is because the computer shows you only items that satisfy both keywords simultaneously. If you want to see items that satisfy either keyword (but not necessarily both at once), put the word "or" between the keywords. That is, enter "CARDIAC or SURGERY".

An item's "keywords" are taken from its title, subject headings and author headings. In addition, the following items are keywords:

* Library Of Congress Card Number
* ISBN Number
* ISSN Number
* Standard Technical Report Number

Tip #3 (Boolean Operators):

You can insert the following "boolean operators" between the keywords that you enter:

and & or not

If you omit these operators and merely enter keywords, the computer connects your keywords with "and". Thus, entering "CARDIAC SURGERY" is the same as entering "CARDIAC and SURGERY".

Placing "not" in front of a keyword indicates that you want items that are not associated with the keyword in question. For example, entering "CARD not SURG" gets you all items associated with the keyword "CARD" that are not associated with the keyword "SURG".

If you enter more than 2 keywords and fail to group the keywords with parentheses, the computer applies operators from left to right. Thus, if you enter simply "MOUSE and CAT or DOG", your input is interpreted as "(MOUSE and CAT) or DOG". You can use parentheses to convey your real intent, which might be "MOUSE and (CAT or DOG)".

Call-Number Search

For "search terms", enter as many letters of the call-number that you care to. The computer will show you the catalog sorted by call-number, positioning you at the closest match on whatever you've entered. You can move forward or backward from there.

End of help.