The Second Floor Librarians

Card Catalog? by OSU Archives, on Flickr

This is a follow-up post to an earlier one I wrote a few weeks ago.

Some of our readers suggested a post explaining how to limit the search to a certain format, so that they can see what’s available as a Playaway, for example.

Hopefully after reading this post, you’ll be able to limit your search to the type of format you’re interested in.

So let’s say you’re interested in Playaways or large print books, or video games. The Set Limits box on the search screen is your friend.

When you click on Set Limits, a new window will pop up with your choices.

The Collection box is where you’ll want to look for the limiter that suits your needs. In the case of Playaways (a brand name), the catalog uses the term Pre-loaded Audio. Select that, click OK, and your search will be limited to Playaways for adults (vs. Playaways for kids).

Once you click OK, it takes you back to the search screen. You’ll know limits are in effect because the Set Limits button has now changed to say Change Limits.

So, if you are looking to browse our holdings in a certain format, be warned that you will have a lot of titles to scroll through (hundreds and hundreds). So it’s good to narrow your search a bit. For example, are you interested in mysteries? Search mystery fiction as a keyword. Or biographies? Use the word biography. Just fiction? Use fiction.

Once you get your long list of results to scroll through, you might find it helpful to use our sorting options. These often get overlooked, but they’re really helpful.

I ran a search for mystery fiction with the limit set to Adult pre-loaded audio. This netted me 84 titles. You can then sort the results in different ways. If you choose to sort by Availability (circled in green), you will get items that are on the shelf and ready for check-out at the top of the list. This is a great option to use if you want something you can take home now.

Another option would be to sort by publication date. This would put the newest items to the top of the list.

I hope this helps clarify searching by format in our catalog. If it doesn’t, or there are other catalog questions you’d like to see addressed, leave us a comment! The sort of feedback we get determines what sort of posts we write. You might also want to check out Sharon’s post on using the catalog to see what new titles have arrived recently.

Posted by Lisa, a second floor librarian