Finding Books -- Part 2 Searching SCHOLAR by Author and Title Authored by Kathy Dobda and Ken Burhanna The text only versions provide a linear presentation of the Hands-On flash modules.  The Hands-On modules often incorporate images and interactive presentations to help demonstrate and support the text.  These images and interactive features are lost in the text only format.  Users can supplement their reading of the text versions by going onto the World Wide Web and visiting the web sites and doing the searches that the text indicates.  This is most easily done by printing the text version and using it as a guide. After completing this module you will be able to: 1. Search SCHOLAR by Author 2. Search SCHOLAR by Title 3. Use SCHOLAR to Find Known Items Introduction Author and Title searching represent some of the most basic skills a researcher can use.  You've probably done these types of searches before, even if you were just looking up the name of a movie you wanted to see.   Often during the research process you will find a citation to a book and then need to look that book up with an author or title search.  This lesson will cover author and title searching in SCHOLAR and go over finding a known item using those skills. 1. Searching SCHOLAR by Author An author is an individual or individuals who wrote, composed, or created a work.  Writers, composers, and artists are authors.   For example F. Scott Fitzgerald is the author of the novel The Great Gatsby. An author search in the SCHOLAR catalog will also search for creator names.  Corporations, organizations, and governmental bodies are included as named creators for works they sponsored or published.   For example the American Medical Association is listed as a named creator for the American Medical Association Complete Guide to Women's Health. To search by author, select the "Author" link from SCHOLAR's main menu. For author names, type in the author's name, beginning with the last name.  Enter as much of the author's name as you can, but you must be precise as to wording and spelling. For example: - Melville Herman - Melville H - Melville Also, keep in mind that punctuation is not required.  You can use it if you like, but Scholar pays no attention. Scholar also is not sensitive to the case of your letters.  You may use upper or lower case letters. The following expressions in an author search will return identical results: - O'neill, Eugene - oneill eugene - ONEILL E Do sample search for the author:  William C. Barrow For creator names, type in as much as you know of the corporation's, organization's, or governmental body's name, beginning with the first word of the name. Again, don't worry about punctuation or the case of your letters. These expressions return identical results in an author search: - General Electric - general electric - gENERAl ELEctric If you do not know the full name of an author, search by surname alone or with a first initial.  Then browse to find what you're looking for. - King S You can also truncate author and creator names mid-phrase or mid-word if you are not sure what comes next.  Again, you would then browse your results. - Solz (finds solz, solze, solzhenitsyn, etc.). - American Med (find American Media Incorporated and American Medical    Association). Remember, it's very important to be precise about word order and spelling when conducting an author search. Fitzgerald Scott is not the same as Fitzgerald F Scott. What If You're Unsure of Word Order or Spelling? If you're unsure of the spelling of an author's name or of what order the words should go in, consider a keyword search instead.  A KEYWORD search retrieves words in titles, author names, content notes, names of publishers, and Library of Congress Subject Headings. Keyword searching can be especially helpful when searching for an author with a compound name, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and you are unsure of which word is the last name.  Keyword searching is also helpful when you can only remember one of the author's names and you're not sure if it's a first or a last name. 2. Searching SCHOLAR by Title To search for an item by its title click on the "Title" search link on the main menu. At the "Title" search screen, type in as much of the title as you can, beginning with the first word. However, omit the first word if it is "a" or "an".   The SCHOLAR catalog will not search successfully for titles beginning with "a" or "an".   SCHOLAR will find titles beginning with the word "the". Don't worry about capitalization or punctuation.  Both of the following searches return the same results: - its a big wide wonderful world - It's a Big Wide Wonderful World With these rules in mind, how should the title A Terrible Beauty Is Born be entered? We need to drop the initial "a". Clicking "SEARCH" will start your search. 3. Finding Known Items in SCHOLAR A known item is an item that you know exists.  You know the title or author of the item, or maybe you have a full bibliographic citation.  Whichever the case, you will use author or title searches to look for known items. Finding Known Items in SCHOLAR -- Exercise Your art education teacher has recommended a book for your class assignment.  Your teacher can only remember the author's last name and the beginning of the book's title.  Here's what he was able to give you: Author:  Eyerdam Title: Using Internet Primary Sources... Use a title search to locate the book your teacher recommended.  Click the appropriate search link to start. Enter your search expression in the box and then hit your Enter key.  Don't click the search button for this example. Okay, it looks like seven books begin with the same four words.  Which one of these is the book you're looking for?  Remember the book is about art.  Click on the book you're looking for. We're you able to find the book your teacher recommended. This concludes Searching SCHOLAR by Author and Title