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Using the Library Catalogue and Shelfmarks: Basic Searching

Basic Searching

Searching is as easy as Search - Refine - Locate...

Search:  enter your search terms or keywords (and select blue search button)

Refine use the tools on the left side of your search results to refine your search.

Locate click a title link or Check Availability box to open an item detail page. Item detail pages give you more information than the search results page such as how many copies are available, when a copy is due back and where to find the item.

Basic Search Tips 

  • If you're looking for a particular item, choose a few of the most specific words from the information you know about it, often a few words and the authors surname are enough. For example, to find the 12th edition of 'Armstong's handbook of human resource management practice' by Michael Armstrong try typing Armstrong handbook 12th or Twelfth.
  • Just like searching the internet, if you are looking for a particular phrase try putting speech marks around your term i.e. "principles of human resource management" - this will limit your search to items that contain these words in the exact order, rather than random keywords.
  • Words with a hyphen between them can also be found with a space instead of the hyphen, for example twenty-first and twenty first.

Basic searching

Library catalogue refine search