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Using WebPALS Library Catalog The Library Catalog is located on the WebPALS system. When using WebPALS you must understand what the different buttons mean and what they do. Before you start this lesson you may want to take a look at the WebPALS Button Chart and print off a copy for future reference. You access the Library Catalog by clicking on the Books link from the College Library Home Page. The College Library Home Page is located at: <http://www.minneapolis.edu/Library/>.
When you click on the Books link you will be taken directly to the Library Catalog basic search screen.
This is the PALS basic search screen. At the
bottom of the search screen notice the option for the "Advanced Search" mode.
The advanced search mode allows you to perform more specialized searches. We
will not cover the PALS advanced search mode in this Tutorial. At the
top of the search screen are located the PALS Library Catalog search options.
Below the search options is a search term entry box where we type in our search
words. Below the search entry box is located the box where we choose the
library, or libraries, we want to search. On the MCTC campus this box will
always default to search our library collection. To select another library we
press on the
The most straightforward type of searching is called "known item searching." Known item searching means that we know what we want and we are looking to see if the library owns the item. Searching for a book by a specific author, or searching for a book by title are examples of known item searches. Take time now to go through both the author and title searching lessons When writing a research paper we will most likely search for information by subject; this is known as subject searching. Searching for information by subject can be complex and time consuming. In addition to traditional subject searching where we search using subject terms from authorized subject lists like the Library of Congress, PALS also allows us to do general keyword searching. Take a look at the subject and keyword searching lesson now. Before we go to the Online Database searching lesson we need to cover a few additional search techniques. PALS offers both Boolean and truncation searching options. These search techniques will allow us to refine our searches and be more productive. Take a look at the Boolean Operators and Truncation Searching Lesson.
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WebPALS
down arrow button and
select the library, or libraries we wish to search.
Now that you
have completed the WebPALS Library Catalog lesson it is time for you to attempt
searching the Library Catalog. Go to the
