Advanced search of the library catalogue

As well as the author, title and keyword searches in the Quick Search screen, the ADVANCED SEARCH also allows you to search in the following ways

Accession number: this is generally only used by the librarians. It is the number on the barcode on the front of each item.
ISBN: the 10 digit international standard book number, printed as a barcode on the back of each book.
Classification: this is the Dewey number on the spine of each book, used to locate it on the shelves. You might, having done a keyword search, find that many useful books appeared to be at a particular number [example: many items on drugs are at 362.29]. You may want to ensure you have a list of everything on that specific subject by searching under the classification number.
EXERCISE: try typing in the following classification numbers, and see what subjects are found at each - 796.334, 305.8, 917.471.
Note that classifications can be browsed in the same way as authors, title words and keywords.
Year of publication: this enables you, for example, to search for those books published after a particular date, or during a specified period. Note that if you type 'on or after 1992', it will start with those items published in 1993. Likewise, if you type 'to 2000', it will only go up to and including 1999. If there are a lot of items on a subject, and you only want a list of the most recent, this is a useful tool.
Material type: you can restrict your search to a particular medium, such as videos, DVDs, cassettes. Limiting your search to websites, for example, might be useful if you were searching the catalogue from home [library.dulwich.org.uk], and were obviously not in a position to consult library books.
Series: you can type any word from the series (eg 'eyewitness' ) to retrieve a list of all the books in that series
Language: to find all the items in a particular language, eg 'French'
Original Language: useful for locating works of fiction which have been translated from another language into English.
Collection: which library the item is in. Note that as well as the Junior School, Lower School and Wodehouse libraries, the catalogue also includes the Archives holdings, the Masters' Library, the Careers Library, and several significant departmental libraries (eg Classics, RS, Art).
Location: where in the library it is located - eg in the reference section, at the desk, in the stack.
Loan Type: whether something can be borrowed, and if so for how long - you might only be interested in those items which can be borrowed on 'Ordinary Loan', ie for two weeks.
Status: for example 'on shelf', 'on loan', 'on order', 'lost'... you might select 'on shelf' so as not to waste time looking for something which is currently unavailable.
Date Added and Date Edited: these might be used to search for items which have been added to the library recently. Note that many are added to the catalogue when they are ordered, so they will be listed even before they arrive. Records about items in the library are edited all the time by the librarians (for example if we find a spelling mistake :) or decide to change the classification or the loan type), so it is not a very useful search criterion.

REMEMBER that in both the Quick and Advanced screens you may search by more than one thing at a time.
[EXAMPLES: you could search by keyword and by material type to find videos on WW2; you could search by both year of publication and author to find recent books by a favourite writer].

December 2006