Utah's Catalog Search Tips

This combined catalog will help you locate books, journals, and other material found in several Utah academic libraries. To borrow material from libraries other than your own, submit an interlibrary loan request to your library's interlibrary loan office. Some library material will not be available for interlibrary loan.

Since this catalog shows the results from many different libraries, you may encounter search results that you don't understand. Please contact a librarian with any questions.


General Search Tips

Truncation

Finding words with alternate suffixes or endings. The truncation symbol in Utah's Catalog is an asterisk (*)

Example:
histor* retrieves: history, historical, histories, etc.
Boolean Operators

And: Retreives records containing both words.
"And" is the defalut operator (it is implied when there is more that one word in a search and no other operator).


Example:
geology utah is the same search as geology and utah
Or: Retreives records containing either word Example:
adolescent* or teenager*
Not: Retreives records containing the first word, but not the second word Example:
gypsy not moth*
Phrase Searching

Searching for words together, in a given order. Place quotation marks around the phrase.

Example:
"nuclear waste disposal"
Combining Searches

Entering search terms in more than one search box

Example:
Title: amsterdam
Author: mcewan
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Search Tips for Each Field

 

All searches in Utah's catalog are keyword based.

Title

Looks for words anywhere in the title field.

 
Use Phrase Searching if you know the exact title. Use quotation marks around your phrase. Example: "all quiet on the western front"
If you don't know the exact title, use as many of the words from the title as you know.

Example:
quiet western front

Author Looks for words anywhere in the author field.
Example:
toni morrison
or morrison toni or morrison t*
General Looks for words anywhere in the record.
Example:
steinbeck grapes wrath
Journal Title Looks for words anywhere in the journal title field  
Use Phrase Searching if you know the exact title

Example:
"Journal of Philosophy"

If you don't know the exact title of the journal, use as many of the words from the title as you know. Example:
journal philosophy
Year This is the year of publication. It is a good field to use in combining searches

Example:
General Keyword: econometrics
Year: 2002

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