At a recent workshop with BEdMus students, we explored different ways of fine-tuning your search techniques to retrieve better results in the catalogue and using Catalogue Plus.
Our catalogue offers access to all physical resources in the library (books, music, recordings etc) and also to individual e-book titles. Meanwhile, Catalogue Plus offers access to all electronic resources - journal articles, databases, sound recordings, etc.
Here's a PowerPoint summary of what we talked about.
Extra free tip!
Don't forget the power of the synonym. If one word doesn't retrieve what you expect, try another word that means the same thing.
- For example, nowadays we talk about "high ability" pupils, but earlier authors wrote about "gifted children". Or prodigies!
- Similarly, sometimes you can get better results with a different version of the word. If you want to write about Smetana or Sibelius as part of the late Romantic nationalist movement, searching for "nationalist music" may yield different results to when you search on Nationalism, or try Nationalism AND Music.
https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/
SIMPLE SEARCH
You can search a library catalogue using the simple search box. You can also search our Catalogue Plus the same way,to get lots of electronic results along with the books, music and audiovisual material that we hold.
ADVANCED SEARCH
But you can get more precise results if you use the Advanced Search. It means you can pin down the author or composer's name, for example, or words that you know are in the title of a book or piece of music. The Advanced Search function is available whether you're searching just the catalogue, or Catalogue Plus.
CATALOGUE PLUS + ADVANCED SEARCH
It's a good idea to be clear what you're looking for, especially with Catalogue Plus, which searches ALL the electronic resources available to RCS staff and students.
We searched for "Highland Piping" on Catalogue Plus. Loads of relevant hits appeared. We have a nifty little visual graphic which categorises all the results, and you can clearly see what is available. (But look what else we found. If you're not canny with your searching, then you might - just might - find something completely different... )
At a recent workshop with BEdMus students, we explored different ways of fine-tuning your search techniques to retrieve better results in the catalogue and using Catalogue Plus.
