The library's online catalog lists books, journals, sound- and video-recordings, government documents, and archival materials. Do NOT use it for periodical (magazine/journal) searches.
     To search, go to the Library's Home Page (http://library.wvstateu.edu/) and click on the Book Catalog link. A screen similar to the one below will open. This is the default screen, which is set for a BROWSE SEARCH. It is very important to notice that ANYTHING IN THE CATALOG THAT APPEARS AS Light Sienna (coppery) Text IS A LINK. Before beginning a search, you should also notice that there are two toolbars, one silver and one brown, at the top of the screen, and a light khaki sidebar on the left.

Select a search field by clicking on the pulldown menu arrow, and highlighting a field. Field choices are: Subject, Title, Author, SuDoc, Call Number, Journal. (In the sample screen, the "Subject" field has been chosen/default.) Click in the blank text box and type your search word(s). Click on the Search button. If you have more than one "hit" an Intermediate results screen will open. (If you have more than 10 "hits" they will appear 10 at a time. To navigate between the Intermediate Results screens you will have one of two types of navigation links either: the words Back | Forward with sets of numbers below 20< 10< 1< and 1> 10> 20> or it will use words, for example last set | next set and first set | previous set or previous record | next record. The links are still in light sienna.) Select one of the items by clicking on it. (If the results are not what you expected, check for misspellings before scrolling down to the blank text box at the bottom of the new screen and trying another search.) A Results screen will open. If there was only 1 hit, the Call Number, Location, and Status of that item will be displayed on the ITEM SCREEN. If there was more than one item in the hit count column, then you will have to select a specific item by clicking on the items link to the left (below the small icon and the BOLD number of the item) to see its Call Number, Location, and Status.

1. Click on the word KEYWORD on the brown toolbar near the top of the screen.
2. Select a search field by clicking on the pulldown menu arrow, and highlighting a field. Field choices are: All, Author, Title, Subject, ISBN, ISSN, LCCN.
3. Click in a blank text box and type your search word.
   Results are displayed (and items located) just as they were in the BROWSE SEARCH explained above.

     In addition to searching fields that are not available while doing a Browse Search, Boolean operators can be used in a Keyword Search. Boolean operators are used to combine different concepts into a single search. They are used to narrow, limit, or expand a search. For example:
AND  : Narrows your search by finding records containing both terms: Poe AND Usher.
OR     : Expands your search by finding records containing either term or both terms: Poe OR Usher.
NOT  : Excludes a term from your search by finding records containing the first term, but not the second: Poe NOT Usher.

At present, the Broadcast Search is set only to this library.
The Reserve Search lists items faculty have placed on reserve. Please check with the Circulation Desk for reserve items.
The Expert Search and more detailed Help Screens will be available later. (Note: Help Screens open a separate window.)