Special Collections & Archives: Transcription of using the library catalogue

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The University of Liverpool

Special Collections and Archives

Using the library catalogue to search for Special Collections material

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What is the Library catalogue?

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The library catalogue provides information about the printed and published material, including Special Collections material, held at the University of Liverpool Library.

On a functional level, it is a tool that allows us to find material that is relevant to our research.

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Where can I find the Library catalogue?

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The Library catalogue is linked to on the University Library homepage

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The catalogue is also linked on the Special Collections and Archives homepage

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How do I search for Special Collections material?

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• Firstly, change the “Limit your search” location to “limit to special collections”
• Secondly, use the dropdown box on the left to adjust your search parameters
• In this example, we know the class number of the item we wish to consult
• So we are adjusting the search to look for “Class Number (Local Collections)”
• If you aren’t sure, you can try a “Keyword” search, in order to search whole records
• We can also use the “Advanced Search” function
• This is helpful if you have more than one search criterion
• For example, we are searching for a book by John Sampson with the title “Folk Tales”
• The Boolean operators “And”, “And Not”, “Or” define how the multiple search terms are combined
• In this example, we are searching for both “John Sampson” AND “Folk Tales”
• The “Add Limits” fields allow us to narrow the location to “Special Collections”
• You can also limit your search by helpful criterion, including publisher, language, publication dates
• The search has produced a number of records with SPEC (Special Collections) classmarks

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What information is included in a catalogue record?

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A catalogue record is made up of “fields”, all of which provide relevant information about the item(s)

The fields may include author, title, publisher, class no., provenance and subject/name authority headings

Anything that is hyperlinked will take you to other relevant records, such as books by the same author

For multi-volume items, the record will include multiple items in the “Class No.” field

More information on the exact volumes the Library holds will be in the “Description” field

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Special Collections catalogue records can provide a wealth of information.

For example, searches limited to the “Author” field will find catalogue records for names associate with Special Collections material not only as authors, but as previous owners and donors, printers and publishers, editors, translators, illustrators and binders.

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For example, here is a full catalogue record for an early printed book (an incunabulum)

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However, not only is the information provided within the record important for your research (e.g. citations and footnotes), it provides you with the “Class No.”, or class number. This is required to request an appointment to view the volume/material in the Reading Room.

If you need any assistance in using the library catalogue to find Special Collections material, please contact us at scastaff@liverpool.ac.uk and we would be happy to assist.

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University of Liverpool

University of Liverpool Special Collections and Archives

@LivUniSCA

@LivUniLibrary

libguides.liverpool.ac.uk/library/sca

manuscriptsandmore.liverpool.ac.uk