The headings can be structured in a number of ways but some of the most common are:
SUBJECT--REGION
[ex.: Literature and folklore--Balkan Peninsula]
SUBJECT-CHRONOLOGICAL PERIOD--SUBDIVISION
[ex.: Czech literature--19th Century--History and criticism]
SUBJECT--SUBDIVISION
[ex.: East European literature--Bibliography]
REGION--SUBJECT--DATES
[ex.: Soviet Union--History-1917-1936]
Why bother with subject headings in the online catalog when you can do keyword searching? It’s true that developing facility with subject headings was more critical in the era of card catalogs. But if you limit yourself to keyword searching, you are likely to miss important material on your topic that uses other terms. A systematic, comprehensive subject search requires searching with subject headings as well as with keywords.
The collection here is classified using the Dewey Decimal system. In Dewey, the first three numbers indicate the main subject, and additional numbers are added after a decimal point to narrow the subject. Books and journals on literary topics are usually classified in the 800s, although much of folk literature can be 390 and the fine arts are in the 700s.
Я => IA ? Я => YA? Я =>JA?
Use the library catalog to find books, journals, films, and more. If you are searching for materials that are in a cyrillic based language such as Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Ukrainian, etc., there are a few issues with the catalog you should be aware of. First, our library, like most of the libraries in the United States uses the Library of Congress/ALA transliteration system. You can find the transliteration tables fr most languages at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html.
Once you have the correct transliteration there are some additional issues you should be aware of:
For a convenient list of the characters in the various cyrillic-based scripts take a look at
http://www.indiana.edu/~libslav/slavcatman/sltrans.html
Once you have verified that the book you are looking for is either not located in the catalog or all copies are checked out, you may search the I-Share catalog to see if one of the participating institutions has a copy for you to borrow. The process is the same for requesting a book in the I-Share catalog as it is for the Illinois catalog. Items typically arrive within 5-10 days and you will receive an email when the item is available for pick up.
If the item is not available in the Illinois catalog and it is not available through I-Share, then your next stop will be Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery. What is Interlibrary Loan? First, keep your full citation handy -- you'll need it. Second, login to the ILLiad server using your NetID and password. From the ILLiad main menu, select "Request a Book." Be sure to fill out as much of the form as possible, including the source of your citation. This will ensure that ILL can place your request in a timely manner. You'll be notifed by email when your item is ready to be picked up.
See the videos on this page for demonstrations on using the library catalog!
The Quick Search option in the library catalog is useful for finding items by title, journal title, author, subject heading, call number, or keywords. Use Quick Search if you know the exact title or author that you are looking for.
Advanced Search is a good option when you are searching for an item for which some combination of information is known, but things like exact author name and exact title are not known. You can search by just the last name of the author and a part of the title or you can search by subject.