The Library Catalog menu offers these choices:
Washington and Lee University Library Catalog
W > WORDS in Subjects or Titles
H > Subject HEADING
A > AUTHOR
T > TITLE
L > LIBRARY of Congress Call Number
G > GOVERNMENT Documents (SuDocs Number)
R > RESERVE Lists
I > Library INFORMATION and User Suggestions
M > Return to MAIN menu
It is usually best to begin with W, the
keyword search, and then perhaps refine the search using
H once you know some subject headings that seem relevant.
KEYWORD :
Type keywords you expect in titles, subjects, or contents notes.
Lee Gettysburg ---> finds book Lee and Longstreet at Gettysburg.
college ethics ---> finds book Education and Ethics.
The connector OR may be used between words.
federal law or state law
dogs or cats
You may truncate after 3 or more letters using *
federal* ---> retrieves federalism, federalist, etc.
Heading searches make use of the controlled vocabulary of
Library of Congress Subject Headings, which are found in the Big
Red Books in the center of the circle of Annie terminals on the Main
level of the Leyburn Library. A book's catalog record will usually have one
or more Subject Headings (though fiction books have none), and an
H search will locate other books which LC catalogers have
classified as dealing with the same subject.
SUBJECT :
A Subject search locates items by Library of Congress Subject HEADING
(LCSH). Therefore, if you are unsure of exact order of words, it may
be beneficial to do a WORD search as well.
Type as much or as little of the subject heading as you want.
for example ----> Music 20th Century
----> Washington, George
If your search yields too many records, try a more specific subject
heading; use the LIMIT function; or ask a reference librarian.
Author searches are straightforward:
AUTHOR :
Type as much of the author's name as you know, LAST NAME FIRST.
for example ----> Wolfe Tom
or ----> Wolfe, tom
or ----> wolfe t
or ----> wolfe
The only complication with Title searches is that articles
('The', 'An', 'A') are not included.
TITLE :
Type as much of the BEGINNING of the title as you know.
for example ----> Lee and Longstreet at Gettysburg
or ----> Lee and Longstreet
or ----> Lee
It is often useful to search by LC Call Number, which allows you
to see books on the same shelf (and thus dealing with the same subject)
as a book you know to be relevant.
LC CALL NO :
Type as much of the Call Number as you know
for example ----> DD229C4 1989
or just ----> DD229
U.S. Government Documents are shelved by SUDOCS numbers:
GOVT DOC # :
Type as much of the Government Documents Number (SUDOCS) as you know:
for example ----> T 70.2:K 84
----> Y 4.F 49:S.HRG.103-252