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A quick and dirty introduction to the behind the scenes of library searching for library staff.
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A Crash
Course in
Library Searching
There are two main things to remember
• Cataloging is very exacting
• Computers are very dumb
MARC
a few MARC fields of note
• 1XX Author• 130 Uniform Title• 245 Title• 490 Series Statement• 505 Formatted Contents Note• 650 Subject—Topical • 655 Genre
some LCSH are nuts
• Abnormalities, Human instead of Birth defects
• Cestoda rather than Tapeworms• Intervertebral disk displacement
for Slipped disc• Canada. Treaties, etc. 1992. Oct.
7 instead of NAFTA or North American Free Trade Agreement
But once you know how they work…
• Start with a keyword search till you find something likely, then steal the subject heading
Practice
Some Other Tricks
• Sort by publication date to get the most recent book
• Sort by GMD (aka format) to find what we have by an author in audio or large print
• Restrict by item type to limit your search
• Truncate with an asterisk * to find variations of a word
Further Reading
• Understanding MARC (I recommend this only if you are really, really interested): http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/
• If you are interested in how strange LC subject headings are, you may enjoy reading about Sandy Berman: http://www.sanfordberman.org/cityp/ber1t.htm
• Or one of his articles: http://www.sanfordberman.org/biblinks/progressive.pdf
Photo Credits
• Women in library: http://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/5748745311
• MARC cake: http://secure.flickr.com/photos/sundaykofax/321063042
• LCSH books: http://secure.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/4598206141
• Card catalog with man and woman: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/5882580951
• Workroom with card catalog: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/nypl/3110117236