Activity: Search the Library Catalog

All book collections across all libraries are represented in the Library Catalog Search on the library's webpage. When you search the catalog, you are searching a database of information that holds a description of each item and its location within the various library locations. Because you are searching a database, searching the library catalog is a different skill from Googling.

Try the following activity to start thinking about how to effectively search the catalog.

Estimated Completion Time: 5 minutes

  1. Open a new browser tab and go to the University of Michigan's library website Links to an external site.. Search in the large search box which reads, “What can we help you find?” A view of the library website
  2. Perform the following search: set theory mathematicslibrary search results bar with the search example typed in
  3. You will notice that the library website returns different categories of results. Because you are searching for library catalog results, click the Catalog header to view only Catalog results. Take a moment to explore these results. Library website category header with 93,908 results.
  4. At first glance, the results might look pretty good. Sifting through tens of thousands of results may not seem like a big deal when searching for a general topic. But what about when you try to search for something more specific?

Try It! Let's say you are interested in books about Victorian Era households, so you do a catalog search for victorian era household. This search turns up topics on the Victorian Era, but it is harder to find topics about households or domestic activities. Would you be happy with the results?