German 371: Wissen und Wissenschaften

Here are some tips for improving your skills when searching Catalyst:

• Select the tab right above the search box to indicate whether you are looking for books or articles.  If you leave it set to Catalyst (the default), you will get all formats in your search results.
   
• Use the filters to the left of your search results to narrow your results to items that are most appropriate to your needs.
   
• When you find a record for a book that looks on target, open that record and look for the "Subjects".  This list can build your vocabulary as you do more searching in Catalyst.  You can also click on one of the Subjects to conduct another search.
   
• If you are searching for an item where you already know the title or author of the item, use the Advanced Search.  Advanced Search will help you be more precise in your searching.

Searching Catalyst by SUBJECT

Searching Catalyst by SUBJECT is the smartest way to search the book catalog.  The best way to do this is to search Catalyst using the Advanced Search feature (see screen shots in the box below).  Subjects are systematically applied to all records in the book catalog using a controlled library vocabulary.  Once you discover Subjects that describe your research topic well, you simply click on them and Catalyst will do a search using that Subject term.  I've listed below Subject terms that should be of help.

After performing the search, look to the left of your search results and click on "Online Resources".  This will guarantee that you are only looking at e-books that you can access from off campus.  When you locate a book that you are interested in, open the record and scroll down to the link that you can click on to access the book.  (We will do this in our library session so that you can see how this is done).

SUBJECTS

Germany -- History -- 20th century
Germany -- Relations -- Europe
Germany -- Intellectual life
Germany -- History -- 1871-

BROWSE BY BOOK NUMBERS

Books about German history are found on the 5th floor of Rolvaag with call numbers beginning with the letters DD

Books about German literature are found on the 2nd floor of Rolvaag with call numbers in the PE3001 - PE5999 range. 

WorldCat

WorldCat is a book catalog similar to Catalyst except that it contains items from many libraries across the country.  If you can not find what you need in Catalyst, WorldCat is you next step.  You can search WorldCat by keyword, author, title and subject.  WorldCat will show you what libraries own a particular item, however you don't need to worry about that unless you notice that only a few libraries own the item that you are interested in.  Your chances of receving an item diminish if there are few libraries that own a title.

When you request an item through WorldCat, it is processed through our Resource Sharing facility.  Articles are delivered fairly quickly - usually within the same 24 hour period.  Books take longer since they must be delivered through the U.S. mail.