WebCat Search Features  


I. Screen Basics 

 

Before we get started, take a look around the basics of the WebCat screen.   We will discuss the various uses in this tutorial, so for now just familiarize yourself with their locations.  By default, when you enter WebCat you are taken to the Quick Search screen.

  1. Blue Navigation and Help buttons   (Results screens have additional Navigation buttons)

  2. Radio buttons

  3. Search Box  (Note: when entering terms leave out all punctuation and capitalization!)

  4. Blue Type of Search buttons

  5. Tabs for Additional Search screens

  6. Library Pick List   (Note: this feature allows you to select the specific OU Library being searched.  At this level, the default is ALL)

 

II.  Four Types of Quick Searching in WebCat

 

The four types of Quick Searching in WebCat are

 

  • Basic Keyword

  • Subject Searching

  • Names and Titles Searching

  • Call Number Searching

 

II. A.  Basic Keyword

 

The catalog will look for your keyword(s) and return a list of items that contain your term(s).

  1. When you logon to the catalog, you are looking at the Quick Search screen and the Keyword radio button is already selected

  2. Type your term(s) into the Search box

  3. Click Search Everything

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II. B.    Subject Searching

 

If you are searching to see if a Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) exists for your topic:

  1. Type your term into the Search box

  2. Click the Browse radio button

  3. Click the blue Subject button

           

   

You will receive a list of LCSH terms.  Clicking on an LCSH term will give you all the items for that Subject Heading:

 

 

OR if you already know the LCSH term you are looking for, you may use the top (default) Quick Search screen to get to it:

  1. Type your term into the Search box

  2. Click the Exact radio button

  3. Click the blue Subject button

You will get a results list of all the items for that Subject Heading:

 

II. C.  Author/Title/Series/Periodical Title 

 

For author names, titles, series names, or periodical title names, use the same process described above, selecting either the Keyword or Browse radio buttons (depending on whether you wish to be brought a result list or taken to an alphabetical list for that selected field).

 

II. D.  Call Number Searching

 

To search by Call Number, you will need to click on the search tab Call Number Browse:

 

Once there, . . 

  1. Type in the Call Number (Caution: no space between letter/letters and numbers! WebCat expects no space between the LC class letter or letters and the numbers that follow)

  2. Select OU Library to be searched (Caution: the default, alphabetically, is the Architecture library.  Please remember to select Bizzell to search the main OU library collection.

  3. Click Browse Shelves

III.  Power Searching

 

To access Power Searching, you will need to click on the search tab Power Search . . .

 

Here you can search for any combination of keywords or phrases, authors, titles, subjects, series and periodical titles using Boolean logic.  For each element in your search, select a search box to enter it in and then use the drop-down menu for that search box to indicate what field that word or phrase is to come from

  1. Select the type of search using the drop down menu - (if you use the specification subject, note that what you are searching for must be a valid Library of Congress Subject Heading word)

  2. Enter term in search box

  3. Select appropriate Boolean logic term using drop down menu

    • AND finds only records that contain all the terms listed

    • OR finds records that contain any of the terms

    • XOR finds records with only cats OR dogs, but not both terms

    • NOT eliminates records that contain this term (useful for limiting results i.e. plague NOT locust)

  4. Click Search Catalog

  5. Search limits are available via drop down menus

 

IV.  Internet Publications (anything OU Libraries labels as "Electronic Access") 

 

To search for Internet Publications (actually, anything that has an "Electronic Access" note on its catalog record), you will need to click on the search tab Internet Publications . . .

 

Here you can search for electronically accessible (Internet) publications using combinations of keywords or phrases, authors, titles, subjects, and periodical titles using Boolean logic.

 

  1. Select the type of search using the drop down menu - subject must be valid Library of Congress Subject Heading

  2. Enter term in search box

  3. Select appropriate Boolean logic term (if needed) using drop down menu

    • AND finds only records that contain all the terms listed

    • OR finds records that contain any of the terms

    • XOR finds records with only cats OR dogs, but not both terms

    • NOT eliminates records that contain this term (useful for limiting results i.e. plague NOT locust)

  4. Click Search Catalog

  5. Search limits are available via drop down menus

V.  The Results List Screen

 

The result of a search is the top level of two result screens.  The first level, the higher level, is the Results List screen, which gives you a little information about each of the items returned in your search specification.  Lets say you are interested in the first item in this Results List, the item titled "Terrorism; documents of international and local control."  In order to see it displayed, you . . .

 

  1. click the blue View button for full information about this item's cataloging record:

 That gives you a Record Level view, shown below. 

 

 

VI.              At the Record Level

 

Here, through the Blue Navigational Bar items, you have access to . . .

 

  1. Cross References (Links to Broader and Narrower Library of Congress Subject Headings LCSH)

  2. View Options are also available.  Using the drop down menus, you can customize your results screens.

 

 

 

On subject headings, please don't forget about the listing of subject headings under each record.  They have links that allow you to quickly find all records that have that particular subject heading associated with them.  That differs from the Blue Bar "Cross Reference" button, which takes you to a display of the broader and narrower relationships among subject headings, based on the subject heading you entered for searching.

 

This record below, for example, has three subject headings associated with it.  You can click on any one of those subject headings and be given a results list of all of the records in the catalog that have that subject heading.  That procedure differs from the way in which you use the "Cross Reference" blue bar button to find other associated (broader, related, narrower) Library of Congress subject headings used in OU's WebCat catalog.