Finding Books -- Part 3 Reading a Catalog Record 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. Read Search Results in SCHOLAR 2. Identify Six Key Elements of a Catalog Record 3. Use Information from a Catalog Record to Find     Books on the Shelf        Introduction It's important to understand the information you locate in the SCHOLAR catalog.  This lesson will cover reading your search results, identifying key elements of a catalog record, and using information from the catalog record to find books on the shelves. 1. Reading Search Results in SCHOLAR Let's pretend you have to write a history paper.  You've decided to write about law during the American colonial period.  Your instructor recommended the following title:  Law and Authority in Colonial America. Check SCHOLAR for this title. The search returned a list of two results--two copies of the book we're looking for, one in the University Library and one in the Law Library. Let's take a quick tour of this screen, so you understand what you're looking at. Your results are currently being displayed in the Extended Display mode.  You can switch to Brief Display by pressing the Brief Display button. Go ahead and give it a try. Brief Display shows only the titles of materials in your results list. Go ahead and click Extended Display to switch back. In Extended Display, you see a library location and call number in addition to the item's title. The library location can be very helpful in SCHOLAR because remember the University Library and the Law Library share SCHOLAR.  In our search results, the title we searched for is present in both the University and Law Library. The call number is like an item's address in the Library.  It is the equivalent of a street address, telling where on a shelf a book or other item lives. The New Search button will take you back to the SCHOLAR Main Menu. Another Search will take you to the title search screen where you can do another title search. Notice that you can also launch another search right from the results screen. Limit & Sort will provide options for you to limit or narrow your search (by material type for example), and it will also let you re-organize your results (by publication year for example). By clicking the OhioLINK button you will replicate your current search in the OhioLINK Catalog.   Results are numbered on the left.  This becomes more useful as you produce bigger lists of results.  Also, notice the box next to the number.  You can check this box and then click the Save Marked Records button. The medium column tells what type of material the item is: a book, video, audio recording, e-book, etc. Once you've saved marked records you then have the option to save them to a disk or email them to yourself in text format.   The final element to be aware of on this screen is the publication year.  The publication year of items appears in the column on the right. 2. Identifying Elements of a Catalog Record The title is linked to the catalog record of the item, which will offer a lot more information.  Go ahead and click on the title located in the University Library. You should become familiar with six important elements of a catalog record.  It's really not very difficult.  You probably know more than you think.  Using this record as a sample to work with, let's see how good you are at identifying these elements with only a few clues.   We've already talked about the title.  It's what we searched by to find this record.   Let's try to identify the author.  Click on the author's name in this record. You could retrieve all items in the Library's collection authored by George Athan Billias by clicking on his name. Subject Headings are an important element of a catalog record.  Subject headings are part of a controlled vocabulary, an agreed upon set of terms that catalogers use to describe library materials.   Locate the subject headings for this record.  How many are there? The answer is two. 1. Law -- United States -- History 2. United States -- History -- Colonial Period, ca. 1600-1775 Location is an important area of the record.  It tells you where the item is located.   What is the location of this item?       Univ Library 2nd FL  or  Law Stacks Base Level  or  Univ Library 4th FL The answer is Univ. Library 2nd FL What is the status of this book?  Is it available to circulate (for you to check out)? Yes, this book is available to circulate. Other common status codes are: - LIB USE ONLY - DUE --/--/-- (with the date indicated) 3. Using a Catalog Record to Find a Book on the Shelf When you locate a book in SCHOLAR that you'd like to check out or at least take a look at it, follow these steps: 1. Check its location and status.  Make sure it's available. 2. Write down the book's location, call #, author, and title. 3. Go to the floor the book is located on. 4. Follow signs on shelves to find the area that holds your call number. 5. Search call numbers until you locate the one you're looking for.                                                            This concludes Reading a Catalog Record