Subject Search Help

Capitalization does not matter. united states history = United States history

Punctuation -
   · Apostrophes are removed. presidents spouses = President’s spouses
   · All other punctuation marks are treated like a space. r e m musical group = R.E.M. (Musical group)

Persons, organizations, and government bodies may be subjects too -
   · Make sure to type the last name of a personal name first. lincoln, abraham
   · Organization names should be typed in direct order. new york times
   · Government body names should be typed in hierarchical order. For example: united states federal bureau of investigation.

A subject search is automatically truncated at the last character typed; the catalog will retrieve a list of all subjects which begin with those characters. Generally, the less you type the more subjects you will retrieve. For example, typing a subject search for a broad term like "cats" will retrieve that subject heading, as well as headings like "Cats -- Behavior," "cats -- health," and "Catskill Mountains" (but not "cat breeds"). Entering just "cat" will retrieve all of the above, as well as many others like "caterpillars," "cathedrals," "Catholic Church," and "cattle."

Clicking on one of the subjects displayed will give you a list of titles having that subject.

Clicking on the title link or “Check Copy Status” link will give you that title's information including copy availability, location, related subject headings, etc.

Cross-references –

-         If the subject you type has related subjects that do not appear in the list retrieved, the first line of the list will offer you those related subjects when clicked.

- If the subject you type is not one the library uses in the catalog, you may be offered a chance to redirect your search to a similar term that is in the catalog. For example: "Cookbooks -- see -- Cookery."

Form, format, and juvenile sub-headings are appended to subject headings when appropriate. For example: Fiction, Video cassette, Juvenile picture books, Juvenile audio cassette, etc.

Rotated sub-headings -

        - Most subject sub-headings are rotated in the subject file so that subjects may be found even if their sub-headings are typed in first. For example: Health -- Cats would be found in a subject list (under Health), as well as Cats -- Health. The same titles would be retrieved after clicking either heading.

        - Some sub-headings occur so frequently that they are not rotated. For example: History, Juvenile fiction, Compact disc, 17th century (or any other subheading beginning with a number), etc.

If you do not find what you need, please ask a librarian for assistance.