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Using the Library Catalog

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Filtering Results

This guide will get you started finding and getting materials through the BC Libraries Catalog.

Too Many Results?

Suppose you started your search with the phrase social media, and among the1400 results were a lot of irrelevant items. What then?Search results for "social media" with "1,404 results" highlighted, and the material type of the first two entries highlighted: database and book.

Subjects

Click on "Show More" under Subjects to see the entire list, and scroll down until you see a subject of interest. Perhaps you're interested in the use of social media in the Arab Spring, or in journalism or social movements in general. Here are some promising subject tags:

List of subjects with "social movements", "online journalism", "citizen journalism" and "Arab Spring, 2010-" highlighted

Click each in turn to see titles of interest.

Saving your search

If you create a search that you'd like to return to, just sign in by clicking "Guest" in the upper right corner, then clicking "Favorites." Click on the "Search History" tab, then find the search you'd like to save, and click the pushpin (favorites) icon.

Screenshot showing Search History, with favorites icon (a pushpin) to the right of a search record

Limiters

To the right of your search results are several categories of options for limiting results. For instance, you could limit your results to items in O'Neill Library, or limit only to books. You might also look through Subjects, to see find a subject focused directly on your research interests.

Library catalog results limiters, showing the categories Availability, Library, Material Type and Subject

Additional categories:

  • Author/Creator
  • Date
  • Local Collection
  • Language
  • Genre