Library Skills Tutorials

Tutorial 2: TOPCAT, the Library Catalogue

Searching for a Topic

Watch this page in a video slideshow.

When you don't have titles or authors and you need to know what our library has on a topic, you may think you should use a "subject browse".

BUT DON'T.

Why not? If it works for finding titles quickly, why not subjects?

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Subject browse looks through the list of Library of Congress Subject Headings that are used in our catalogue. It matches up your search term to a spot on our alphabetical list of Subject Headings. These headings are complex and if you aren't familiar with them you'll have trouble.

For example, if you look for the subject of "Canadian History" you won't find anything, but "Canada -- History" finds hundreds of items. The Subject Headings come from a large list of terms used by libraries all over the world. They are specific in their wording and you need to match them exactly for your search to be successful.

Subject Headings are a specific part of the TOPCAT record. To "browse" these subjects, you need to know just how they are entered.

Here's a TOPCAT record for a book, highlighting the Subject Headings it's been given:

Some items (Government Documents, for example) don't even have Subject Headings in their descriptions. When you use a subject search, you immediately eliminate all these items.

When you want to search for items on your topic, use a keyword search
rather than a "subject browse". A keyword search is more flexible.

Keyword Searching

A keyword search finds your terms somewhere in the TOPCAT description (record) of an item. It might be in the title, the Subject Heading, or even the author. You can search "any field" (the default), or you can specify where you want the term to be. Usually an "any field" search is best.

When you keyword search specifically in "subjects", TOPCAT only looks for your terms in the Subject Headings. Remember that some items don't have Subject Headings, and the terms used are very specific. If you leave the search open to "any field", you'll find your term whether it's in the Subject Heading, the title, or some other part of the description - a broader, more flexible search.

To find items in TOPCAT on your topic, choose one or two terms that are important to your topic, and search for them. Half the challenge is in choosing the right words to search for, as you'll learn later, in the Keyword Tutorial.

Use the second (green) search box in TOPCAT. If you enter more than one search term, put the word "and" between the terms, so that only items with BOTH words will be located.

Example: To find items dealing with "women's right to vote", search for "women and vote". The image below shows the search screen:

The search "women and vote" finds about 20 items in the library that have the words "women" and "vote" in their description. They include print books, e-books, historical documents on microfiche, and videos. (Notice that there are no journal articles - TOPCAT isn't the right place to find those.)

Next you look through the results and click on items that look useful for your research to find out more about them. Write down call numbers (discussed later in this tutorial) for physical items to find in the library, and follow links to online resources.

The next screen covers searching TOPCAT for Reserve readings.

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