The brief record display provides you with basic information, including author, title, publisher, location and call number, for your search results. You can also access the full bibliographic record by either clicking the highlighted number to the left of the record or the “Display full record” link immediately above the record. For results less than 500 records, you can sort your results by publication year, author, title, or call number by clicking on one of the highlighted terms "Year/Author/Title/Call No." at the top of the results list. See “Location Information” below for details on item status.
If you wish to print, e-mail, or save specific records, “mark” the records by clicking the small box to the left of the record and then click on the “Add to Basket” button at the top or bottom of the screen. You may also mark records to create a subset of records that you may then combine with other searches. To view the items you added, click on “Your Basket”.
The full view provides you with complete bibliographic information about an item. You can select different display formats of the full record by clicking on Standard, Citation, MARC and Card Catalog from the top of the full view screen. The Standard and MARC views provide the same information but with different field labels. The Card Catalog view gives you the standard information you would expect to see on a card catalog card. The citation view is in MLA format or as close to it as the system can manage.
To add records to your “basket” for printing, e-mailing, or saving to a disk, “mark” the records by clicking the small box to the left of the record then click the blue “Add to Basket” button at the top or bottom of the screen. To view the items you added, click on “Your Basket”. See “Location Information” below for details on item status.
You can also redirect your search using highlighted fields in the full record. For example, if you have a record by a particular author and you want to see what else that author has written, click on the author’s name. Another screen will pop up allowing you to browse the Author index starting with the requested author.
To return to the brief record display, click on "results list" at the top of the page.
The location information for an item tells you the information you need to access the item, such as the library in which the item is housed and the call number. The University of Iowa libraries primarily use call numbers based on the Library of Congress classification system (e.g., PG 3366 .V6 M3 1995) and the Superintendent of Documents (Su Docs) system for government documents (e.g., JU 2.2: IR 5/V. 1-3).
By clicking on the call number from either the Brief Results or Full View Record, you can determine whether the item is already checked out; if a date is listed under the “Due Back” column, the item is currently checked out and will not be on the shelf. This step is especially important for determining which volumes of journals the university owns. If an item is checked out, click on “Recall” to request the item.
Sometimes the location field says “No holdings or availability information exists” or, after you click on the location field, the new screen says “Ask Staff”, “On Order”, or “In Processing”. You may request these items online. Also, see “Ask Staff Processing Codes” for further information about UI Libraries Catalog codes. Currently, the Law Library and the Curriculum Lab do not have online request forms. For more information, please contact them via phone or e-mail.