Guides & Tutorials

What is the online catalog?

The Library's online catalog lists bibliographic, location, and availability information about books, periodicals, recordings, and other materials to be found in the Old Dominion University Libraries. It includes items in the Hofheimer Art Library and the Diehn Composers Room in addition to those in the (main) Perry Library.

How can I use the catalog from home or office?

You may access the catalog via the Internet on the World Wide Web at http://iii.lib.odu.edu  .  Alternately,  from the library's home page at http://www.lib.odu.edu, you may simply click on Library catalog, listed under Resources.

Searching the library catalog

Search basics

Punctuation

Internal punctuation is discounted. You could type either WASHINGTON, GEORGE or WASHINGTON GEORGE [without the comma] and get the same result.

Truncation

In author, title, and subject searching, you can type in a shortened name, title, etc. to save time. For example, you could enter just VONNEG instead of VONNEGUT, KURT. In keyword searching, you must use the asterisk (*) at the end of the word stem or root. For example, typing in PUBLISH* will retrieve publish, published, publisher, and publishing.

Limiting

You may limit it by library location (Art library, Reference Department, etc.), type of material (printed material, sound recording, etc.), language, publisher, year of publication, etc. This is optional.

Types of searches

Keyword - Use when you have a significant word or phrase from the title,conference name, corporate group, etc. Also you may combine keywords--using the connectors AND, OR, and NOT-- to link the words into logical search statements. To truncate a word, you must use the asterisk (*).

Examples:

BURNOUT
ART AND (GREEK OR GREECE OR GRECIAN)
CHILD ABUSE
(BASEBALL OR SOFTBALL) AND COACH*
  Note: COACH* will retrieve coach, coaches, and coaching.

Author - Use when you know the name of a particular author, editor, composer, corporate group, etc. For example: American Bar Association; Vonnegut, Kurt

Title - Use when you know the title of a book, series, video, journal, magazine. etc. (but NOT titles of individual articles).

Subject - Use only when you want to find books, recordings, periodicals, etc. (but NOT individual articles) and you know the valid Library of Congress subject heading.

Numbers - Use for specific numbers, such as call number, Su Docs number (for U.S. government publications), OCLC, ISBN/ISSN, and other numbers.

Need help? Call the Perry Library Reference & Research Services at 757-683-4178, or the office of Distance Learning at 1-800-968-2638 and ask to be transferred to 4178. If you prefer to use email, from the library's home page at http://www.lib.odu.edu, click on Ask a Librarian.