From the Research Desk

Searching the Library Catalog shouldn’t prove to be difficult. Anybody who is used to finding information on any major type of search engine will be able to use it. You’re associated with an institution of higher education that has strong admission standards. You can do this. A bigger question is, why bother? When any random search on Google retrieves umpty-gazillion responses, why restrict yourself to the few hundred thousand available through the Library collections? One answer lies in the quality...

Over the last few years we’ve gotten requests for a library catalog that not only searches for books and DVD’s, but will search the databases for journal articles at the same time. The UDM Library is proud to announce that a catalog with that capability is coming. It’s called Primo and UDM Library staff and our consortial partners at Dalnet have been working diligently for months to prepare the new catalog for implementation. Over time, you will notice changes on...

I’ve got some bad news. If you have trouble using the UDM Library Catalog, it’s probably your fault. It might be typos in a search, or misuse of a search key, or even trying to use the catalog for purposes it’s not designed for. That has to be true. After all, the only alternative is that it’s the catalog’s fault and since the catalog is only as good as the cataloger… I mean, I’ve been logging cattle for over 30...

The last blog post about searching the UDM Library Catalog took a brief look at the Advanced Search option, as pictured here. The Advanced Search provides a clear way to search multiple areas of the catalog record, and options to set pre-search limits by location or format. The Power Search, as seen here, expands on these capabilities by adding the element of logic. If your screen name is Mr. Spock you will understand this better than I do, but here...

Occasionally one of your professors may ask you to write a paper citing primary sources. A primary source is a document, recording or physical object that conveys a first-hand account or direct evidence of an event or time period. Primary sources also include publications (often journal articles) which report results of or data from original research. (Note: digital, microform or published copies of original materials can still be considered primary sources as long as their content is unchanged) Primary sources...

Using the UDM Library catalog can be a frustrating experience when it works too well and retrieves thousands of matches for your search. That’s why there are so many different tools and tricks for refining your search, and why librarians are experts at focusing your search to retrieve a manageable list of results. But the reverse problem often occurs as well. You know darn well that book is in the catalog somewhere. You found it before. Where is it now?...

I’ll bet you think a library catalog is nothing but a list of selected materials available through the Library. Well, you’re kind of right. That’s the basic purpose of a library catalog. But there’s more to it than that. You see, the library catalog is sort of like the LinkedIn for information. Each entry is for a specific book or journal or DVD or whatever else the library owns. You can glean more detail about it than you might ever...

Have you searched for a book in the library catalog and seen this? The title field says electronic source, the location is UDM Electronic Resources, the shelving location is UDM electronic book, the call number ends with eb, and the status is Available online. What does it all mean? It means that this book is not in the UDM collection in print and does not sit on a shelf. No ink, no paper. It is an ebook or electronic book....