The Library Catalogue

The Library Catalogue shows you what we have in the Library: books, print journals, pamphlets, DVDs etc. Being able to use the catalogue properly will help to make your research more efficient and effective.

You can search the catalogue either by clicking on the search button at the top right of this page or by going direct to the Catalogue home page. The Catalogue also has an advanced search page for more complex queries.

How to use the Library Catalogue

Searching for a specific item 

If you are searching for a specific item, such as a book on a reading list for example, type the author’s family name plus the first main word of the title and click on Search. For example, here is an extract from a reading list:

Cottrell, S. (2008). The study skills handbook (3rd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

To find this book, type cottrell study in the search box and click on search. Click on the book title in your search results to see availability and location information for the book you want.

Top Tips 

• Don’t bother with capital letters - they aren’t needed on the catalogue
• Never type the or a in any language if your title begins with these words
• Don’t type out the whole title - the first couple of words are enough and very often just the first word will do if you’re typing the author’s name too
• Use quotation marks around keywords to search for a phrase for example “project management"
• Use an asterisk to search for alternative word endings for example environment* to search for environment and environmentally
• Click on more search options for help with refining your search

Searching for a specific journal article 

You may find references to journals or journal articles on your reading lists. The easiest way to find a journal article is to see if we hold it electronically. To do this go to the Library Search Page and use the Discovery Service box to search for the article by author and title. 

If we don't have an electronic copy of an article, you can use the Library Catalogue to find out if we have a print copy of a journal. If you are looking for a specific journal or journal article, you cannot type the author and title of the article into the Library Catalogue as such specific details are not held. Instead you must use the title of the journal itself. For example, here’s an extract from a reading list:

Bahadir, B. & Gumus, I. (2016). Credit decomposition and business cycles in emerging market economies. Journal of International Economics, 103, 250-262.

To find out if we have a print copy of this article you would type Journal of International Economics into the search box and click on search. The Catalogue will tell you if we have a print copy in the Library and what years we hold. 

Struggling to find books on your topic?

The Catalogue only searches the title, keywords, and the catalogue record.  Unlike Discovery or Google, it cannot search within a book or journal  If your search does not produce many results, try and think of what kind of book might contain a chapter or section on your topic.  For example, if you are looking for books on interviewing candidates for a job, you might find a chapter or section on this topic in a book on recruitment.  

You can use your initial results to broaden your search. Look under the Subject filter on the left-hand side of your results. This filter provides alternative search terms. For example, 'family violence' could be used as an alternative to 'domestic violence'. Click on any of these keywords to do another search.

Useful links

• Using the Library Catalogue (file)
• My Account