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What is in the Online
Catalog?
The Waukegan
Public Library's Online Catalog is a database of the books,
magazines, audiobooks, cassettes, CDs, CD-ROM's, videos, DVDs, and other
materials in the library and on its bookmobiles. It has information
about the materials, as well as the location of each item
in the library and whether it is checked out.
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How do I search for
a book (video, magazine, CD, etc.)?
Basics
Capitalization:
Letters are searched without regard
for upper or lower case.
| Searching by |
has the same results
as searching by |
| Learn DOS |
learn dos |
| Everson, William |
everson, william |
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the basics section.
Initial
articles:
English language articles, "a,"
"an," and "the" are discarded by the system when you include
them in a search.
| Searching by |
has the same results
as searching by |
| The New Yorker |
New Yorker |
When "a" is not used as an initial
article, but appears at the beginning of the title, type the
initials without spaces or type "a" in quotes.
| Search by |
instead of |
| ABC of Lettering |
A B C of Lettering |
| "A" is for Apple |
A is for Apple |
For all other languages, do not
include initial articles as part of the search.
Return to the top of
the basics section.
Punctuation and special
characters:
Ampersands (&) may be searched
as "&" or as the word "and." & is automatically translated
to "and" regardless of language.
| Searching by |
has the same results
as searching by |
| red & black |
red and black |
Apostrophes ('), quotation marks
("), and parentheses (()) are ignored in searching.
| Searching by |
has the same results
as searching by |
| O'Malley |
omalley |
All other punctuation marks (such
as - / . , : ; * $ ! @ # % +) are translated as a space.
| Searching by |
has the same results
as searching by |
| pro-musica |
pro musica |
| U.S. |
u s |
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the basics section.
Spelling:
Try all spelling variations
for more complete results. For example:
- Search by both theatre and
theater
- Search by both labor and
labour
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By Author
Authors can be people (such
as authors, poets, editors, translators, illustrators, artists,
composers, performers, actors, and directors), as well as
companies, corporations, countries, government agencies or
conferences. You can search by author from any results screen
by choosing "Author" from the drop-down box in front of the
search box, or you can go to the Author
Search Screen.
Enter the person's last name
first in your search, as in the examples below.
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries
by |
| Gabaldon |
Diana Gabaldon |
| oneill e |
all the Oneills whose
first names begin with "E" |
| Bronte, Charlotte |
Charlotte Bronte |
| perez reverte arturo |
Arturo Perez-Reverte |
| elizabeth i |
Elizabeth I |
| american psychological
assoc |
the American Psychological
Association |
| Commission on Chicago |
the Commission on Chicago
Landmarks |
An unsuccessful search results
in the message "No matches found; nearby AUTHORS are:" Try
- shortening the author's
name, e.g. bronte
- using a pseudonym, e.g.
twain mark
- using a variant spelling,
e.g. mckenzie or mackenzie; schoenberg or schonberg
- omitting or including a
prefix, e.g. gogh or van gogh
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By Title
Title searches will retrieve
both individual titles and series titles. Initial
articles (such as a, an, the, el, la, los, une, das) should
be omitted but internal articles must be included. You can
search by title from any results screen by choosing "Title"
from the drop-down box in front of the search box, or you
can go to the Title
Search Screen.
| Searching by |
Finds |
| color purple |
Walker's book, The
Color Purple and the movie based on that book |
| all the kings men |
Warren's book, All
the King's Men as well as the movie by that title |
| poeta en nueva |
Garcia Lorca's poem, Poeta
en Nueva York |
| 1000 Acres |
Smiley's A Thousand
Acres |
| field and |
the magazine Field
and Stream |
| journal of business |
the magazine The Journal
of Business |
An unsuccessful search results
in the message "No matches found; nearby TITLES are:" Try
- omitting the initial article
- shortening the title, e.g.
"Time" instead of "Time Magazine"
- using acronyms for a title,
e.g. "JAMA" for the "Journal of the American Medical Association"
- spelling out acronyms
- using variant spellings,
e.g. theatre or theater
Return to the top.
By Author/Title
An Author/Title search is an
Author search limited by a word or words in the title. After
you type in an author's name and a word or words from the
title, the system will retrieve all entries by that author
and then pick out entries that contain those words. Note that
the words you choose to search by do not have to be the first
words of the title. This is a good search strategy to use
when you know the name of an author but are unsure of the
complete title. You can search by author/title by going to
the Author/Title
Search Screen.
| Searching by |
Finds |
| "shakespeare w" and "henry" |
Shakespeare's plays, King
Henry IV, King Henry V, King Henry VI, and King
Henry VIII |
| "bronte" and "heights" |
Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering
Heights |
| "genealogical publishing"
and "german" |
the CD-ROM German Genealogy
Research Guide with works originally published by
Genealogical Publishing, Inc. |
An unsuccessful author search
results in the message "No matches found; nearby AUTHORS are:" An unsuccessful
title search results in the message "your limiting title was
not found and was therefore not used." Try
- shortening the author's
name, e.g. bronte
- using a pseudonym, e.g.
twain mark
- using a variant spelling
of the author's name, e.g. mckenzie or mackenzie; schoenberg
or schonberg
- omitting or including a
prefix, e.g. gogh or van gogh
- using fewer words from the
title
- using alternate spellings
of the title words, e.g. theatre or theater
You might also try just an
Author search or just a Keyword
search.
Return to the top.
By ISBN/ISSN
The ISBN (International Standard
Book Number) and the ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)
are two of the more common standard numbers that you can search
by. Type the ISBN without spaces or punctuation. Type the
other standard numbers with exact spaces and punctuation.
You can search by standard number from any results screen
by choosing "ISN" from the drop-down box in front of the search
box, or you can go to the ISBN
or ISSN Number Search Screen.
| Searching by |
Finds |
| 0684813637 |
David McCullough's book,
John Adams |
| 0028-9604 |
the journal, Newsweek |
| 23923 (the publisher's
number) |
a videotape of I Know
What You Did Last Summer |
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By Keyword
You may search for single words
or a combination of words in titles, subject headings, contents
notes, names of companies, organizations, governments and
conferences. Words may be combined using the Boolean operators
AND, OR, and AND
NOT. You can also search for a phrase,
truncate (shorten) words,
specify where the words should be (author, title, subject, or note), and combine
operators. You can search by keyword from any results
screen by choosing "Word" from the drop-down box in front
of the search box, or you can go to the Keyword
Search Screen.
AND
You may enter an "AND" between
words, and the catalog will search for records that contain
all of those words, not necessarily as a phrase. Using
"AND" narrows the search.
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries |
| brewster and place |
with the word "brewster"
and the word "place," retrieving the book, The Women
of Brewster Place |
| primates and evolution |
with the word "primates"
and the word "evolution," retrieving materials that discuss
both subject areas |
| guitar and weeps |
with the word "guitar"
and the word "weeps," retrieving the song "While My Guitar
Gently Weeps" from the contents note of various compact
discs |
| health and administration |
issued by the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration |
Return to the top
of the keyword section.
OR
You may enter an "OR" between
words, and the catalog will search for records that contain
at least one of those words. The records may
include more than one of the words used. Using "OR" expands
the search.
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries |
| discrimination or prejudice |
with the word "discrimination"
or the word "prejudice" |
| beijing or peking |
with both place names
for this Chinese city |
| color or colour |
with both the American
and the British spelling of "color" |
Return to the top
of the keyword section.
AND
NOT
You may enter an "AND NOT" between
words, and the catalog will find the first word and exclude
any of those entries that contain the second word.
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries |
| mexico and not new |
with the word "Mexico"
but not the word "new," retrieving
materials on the country but not
the state |
| bronte and not charlotte |
on the Bronte sisters,
but not Charlotte |
Return to the top
of the keyword section.
Phrase
You may search for an exact
phrase by putting the phrase in quotation marks "". Any command
words such as "AND" and "OR" inside the quotation marks will
be ignored
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries |
| "dog or cat" |
Finds catalog entries
with the complete phrase "dog or cat" rather than entries
with either word individually |
Return to the top
of the keyword section.
Truncation
You may truncate (shorten) your
search term by entering an asterisk at the end of a word.
Use a single asterisk * to truncate from 1-5 characters. Use
a double asterisk ** for open-ended truncation . This will
find words beginning with the letters you typed with all possible
endings. This allows you to find singular, plural, and possessive
forms of a word within the same search. It will also pick
up some foreign language spellings. The asterisk serves to
expand your search.
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries |
| australia* |
with the words, "Australia,"
"Australian," "Australia's" |
| adolescen* |
with the words "adolescent,"
"adolescents," and "adolescence," as well as foreign language
spellings such as "adolenscente" and "adolescencia" |
Return to the top
of the keyword section.
Specify Where the Words Should Be
You may specify whether the keyword search looks for words in the author, title, subject, or note area. This is useful when you know some of the words in a title but not the exact start of the title, or when you know part of the author's name but not all of it.
| To specify |
Type this in front of your search |
| author |
a: |
| title |
t: |
| subject |
d: |
| note |
n: |
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries |
| a:liberty |
with the word "liberty" in any author's name, such as the "Liberty Brass Band" and "Gene Liberty" |
| t:liberty |
with the word "liberty" in the title, such as Songs of Liberty |
| d:liberty |
with the word "liberty" in any subject, such as books about the Statue of Liberty |
| n:liberty |
with the word "liberty" in any note, including the contents and summary, |
Return to the top
of the keyword section.
Combining
Operators
You may combine several operator
to make a more complex search. Parentheses () can be used
to group terms.
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries |
| dakota* and not (north
or south) |
on the Dakota Indians
or the Dakota Territory but not the states of North Dakota
or South Dakota |
| (substance abuse) and
(teenage* or adolescen* or youth) |
on substance abuse by
youth, whether they are referred to as "teenagers" or
"adolescents" or simply "youth" |
| d:snow** and d:photograph** |
on a scientist who photographed snowflakes |
Word searches can be lengthy.
You may be able to find something more quickly with a Subject
Heading Search. Avoid searching for words or phrases likely
to have many entries, e.g. united states.
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By Subject
Subject headings can be topics,
places, people, or organizations. Most subject headings used in this library are
based on the Library of Congress Subject Headings. You may
enter a complete LC subject heading, or browse by using a
shortened form of the heading. The less you type, the more
you retrieve.
Subdivisions of an LC heading
may be entered first. You can search by subject from any results
screen by choosing "Subject" from the drop-down box in front
of the search box, or you can go to the Subject
Search Screen.
| Searching by |
Finds catalog entries |
| african americans education
higher |
with the Library of Congress
subject heading, "African Americans" with the subdivision
"Education (Higher)" |
| African
Americans |
with the LC subject heading,
"African Americans" with or without a subdivision, providing
a greater number of entries to browse |
| guidebooks Mexico |
with the LC subject heading,
"Mexico -- Guidebooks" |
| Cuba |
with the LC subject heading,
"Cuba" |
| mozart wolfgang amadeus |
with the LC heading "Mozart,
Wolfgang Amadeus," retrieving materials about Mozart rather
than music composed by him |
| alcoholics anonymous |
with the LC heading "Alcoholics
Anonymous," retrieving materials about the organization
rather than materials published by the organization |
An unsuccessful search results
in the message "No matches found; nearby SUBJECTS are:" Try
- shortening
the subject heading, e.g., African
Americans education
- broadening the subject heading,
e.g., minorities education
If you are unsure of the LC subject
heading use a Keyword search.
Return to the top.
By Call Number
The library's nonfiction collections
are in the Dewey Decimal classification.
Dewey numbers always begin with at least
three digits. Type the full Dewey Decimal
call number with spaces between the numbers
and letters or browse by typing a shortened
version of the number. You can search
by call number from any results screen
by choosing "Call No." from the drop-down
box in front of the search box, or you
can go to the Call
Number Search Screen.
All of the call numbers for
books on tape start with "Audio." All of the call numbers
for books on CD start with "CD." The call numbers for videocassettes
and DVDs of feature films start with "Video" or "DVD" respectively,
followed by a three-letter abbreviation of the film's genre
(ADVenture, COMedy, DRAma, FAMily, FOReign, HORror, JUVenile,
MUSical and performing arts, SCIence-fiction, SUSpense, WEStern).
This means that you can browse these collections online by
doing a call number search for the collection's prefix.
| Searching by |
Finds |
| 641.5941 PAT |
a book entitled, Two Fat
Ladies Full Throttle |
| 641.5 |
over 1000 cookbooks which
have the Dewey classification 641.5 |
| video dra |
a list of the library's
drama videos on VHS |
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By Series Title
Series title
searches will retrieve only series titles.
Initial articles
(such as a, an, the, El, la, Los, une,
DAs) should be omitted but internal articles
must be included. You can search by series
title from any results screen by choosing
"Series Title" from the drop-down box
in front of the search box, or you can
go to the Series Title
Search Screen.
| Searching by |
Finds |
| left behind |
all of the books in Tim
LaHaye's "Left Behind" series |
| countries of the world |
books in the "Countries
of the World" series for children, but not books with
the title Countries of the World |
| Guias de rescates legales |
Spanish books in the Legal
Survival Guides series |
Return to the top.
How do I limit or
sort my search?
After you have done a search, you can see just
the results for a particular area of the library by clicking
in the drop-down box after your search term. At first, this
says "View Entire Collection." You can limit your search to
the Children's Collection (books, videos, music, kits, etc.
in the Children's Department), the Bookmobile Collection (books,
CDs, and other materials on either of the two bookmobiles),
the Audio/Visual Collection (videos, DVDs, music CDs and tapes,
and CD-ROM's -- note that this collection does not include
adult books on tape or books on CD), the Spanish Collection
(books and other materials in Spanish for adults or children),
the Adult Collection (books, movies, music and more for adults
at the main library, on the bookmobiles, or in the branch),
or the Hinkston Collection (books in print, on CD, or on Playaway,
plus DVDs, CDs, and other materials at the branch).
After you have done a search,
you can also click on the orange "Limit/Sort Search" button
at the top or bottom of the screen. This lets you choose one
or more of the following limits for your search. It also lets
you sort by year.
Year
-- Material -- Language
-- Publisher -- Area
of the Library -- Keyword -- Sort
by Year
Year:
You can specify a year or range
of years for your search. Leaving the second box blank searches
for any year later than the one you typed in the first box.
Note that the years you type into the limit boxes are not included.
In other words, to search for books published in 2000 or later,
type "1999" in the first box and leave the second box blank.
To search for books published in 2000 only, type "1999" in the
first box and "2001" in the second box.
Return to the top of
the limiting/sorting section.
Material:
Use the drop-down box to limit
your search to any one of the following types of material:
- Books and magazines
- Scores (i.e. books of music)
- Maps
- Videos/DVDs
- Audiobooks (i.e. books on tape or CD)
- Recorded music (i.e. music tapes or CDs)
- Art print
- CD-ROM
- Kit
- Mixed material
- Sculpture
- Ebooks
Return to the top of
the limiting/sorting section.
Language:
Use the drop-down box to limit
your search to items only in English or only in Spanish.
Return to the top
of the limiting/sorting section.
Publisher:
Type any word in this box to
find only items with that word in the publisher information.
For example, typing "Houghton" will find books published by
Houghton Mifflin.
Return to the top
of the limiting/sorting section.
Area
of the Library:
You can specify a more specific
area of the library here than you can with the drop-down box
on the main search-results screen. You can limit your results
to only items in the Adult Collection, Children's Collection,
Adult A/V Room, Children's A/V Collection, Bookmobile Adult
Collection, and Bookmobile Children's Collection.
Return to the top
of the limiting/sorting section.
Keyword:
Choose which part of the record
you want to look for the keyword in: title (including subtitle
and all alternate titles), author (including illustrators
and performers), or subject. Then type the word or phrase
you are looking for.
Return to the top
of the limiting/sorting section.
Sort
by Year:
Check the box marked "Sort Results
by Year" to have the most recent items matching your search
display first.
Return to the top.
How do I print, download,
or email my search results?
After you have done a search,
you may select records to be printed, downloaded, or emailed
to your personal account. If you are viewing an individual
record, click on the orange "Export" button at the top or bottom
of the screen to save it to your list. You can add other records
to your list individually the same way. If you are viewing
a list of records, you can select one or more of them by checking
the boxes in front of the titles you want (in the "Mark" column)
and clicking on the grey "Save Marked Records" button at the
top or bottom of the screen.
When you have selected all
of the records you want, click on the orange "View saved"
button. Choose the type of information you want by clicking
in one of the radio buttons in front of Full Display (the
information you see when looking at a record in the catalog),
Brief Display (only the author, title, publisher, and call
number), Pro-Cite or End-Note (information appropriate to
those formats), or MARC (a complete record in a library technical
format). Choose where you want the information sent by clicking
in one of the radio buttons in front of E-Mail (specify your
email address and the subject line you want the message to
use), Screen (displays the information in a printer-friendly
format), or Local Disk (you will need to have your own floppy
disk for this option). When you have made your choices, click
on the grey "Submit" button.
To remove all of your saved
records, click on the orange "Clear Saved Records" button from
the search screen or from the exporting screen.
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