Guide to Using the Library s Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) The Full Catalogue should be used only when you are unsure of where you need to carry out a search, or when you really want to call up ALL sections. Unnecessary use of the Full Catalogue results in lots of surplus records being called up, leading to frustration and time wasting. Books include those works in the main section, reference department, branch libraries and in various departments throughout the University. Melitensia Department contains books, reports, and statistics that are of significance to Malta. (Please remember that many items are not yet inputted into the online catalogue). Theses submitted by students from the University of Malta, and foreign universities. Audio-Visual Media include CDs, videos, floppy diskettes/sound cassettes/ CD- ROMs, works in microfilm and microfiche format, and slides. Articles refer to Melitensia articles only. Periodicals include journals, newspapers and magazines. Short Loan Department includes books put on reserve by the academic staff that can be borrowed for 2 hours during the day, overnight or over the weekend.
Using the Free Text Option The Free Text option will retrieve information from certain fields such as title, notes, series and some other minor fields such as pagination. This option does NOT search in these fields, namely Author, Corporate Author, Publisher, and Subject Headings. When you want to retrieve a work the title of which you re sure of, then the title field should be searched. Using the Free Text option to search for a title results in several surplus records being unnecessarily called up.
When typing the title of a work remember. The initial article of a title, for example the, a in whatever language should never be typed. Remember also that the topic of a work is not always to be found in the title. (See next page - Searching by Subject). The database is not case sensitive either. You can type either in small letters or in capital letters or both. Other tips on typing words in the title Typing child alone in the title field will call up all records that have the letters C H I L D in the title, plus all the derivatives of the word e.g. child s, childhood, children Pay special attention to words that have American or English Spelling e.g. Organization/Organisation Encyclopedia/Encyclopaedia Center/Centre Behavior/Behaviour. In this case you have to conduct two searches, one for each word to call up all the records.
Searching by Subject For Example TS155. is the shelf mark for Operations Management In Theses database only, all records may be traced by subject. In other databases, this is not so. Searching under subject leads to incomplete results. The topic you are looking for is not always to be found in the title. Looking only by typing the word in the title field leads to incomplete information. Not only that but the same word may have several different meanings. This leads to several surplus records being called up. Moreover, the search results are then limited to Englishlanguage works. The best thing to do is to find the topic by means of the appropriate Subject Heading, or failing that, in the title field (or even the card subject index, situated on ground floor), take note of the letters and digits before the first decimal point in the shelf mark, and then use this option to call up the titles under that topic.
Names of Authors Often, names of authors on reading lists are given only with the initial letter of their first name, followed by a full stop. If you are not finding the names given on your reading lists, make sure that you type the author s surname followed by a comma, space and author s initial. Do not type a full stop. The search will call up all those authors names beginning with that initial, both those, which consist only of initials, and those whose full name is entered. You may then choose the required name or else opt to view all the titles retrieved by clicking on the All Keys button. Tips on Double Surnames: - If the surname is Italian, for example De Amicis, type De in the front If the surname is French, for example de Beauvoir, type de at the back. If an author has two surnames and you did not find him/her by searching under the first surname, try searching under the second surname. Double surnames without a hyphen are to be found at the very beginning of the list of the automated catalogue, for example Garcia Alvarez, Pedro. Double surnames with a hyphen are to be found at the very end of the list of names, for example Garcia-Amador, F.V. Famous authors, for example Shakespeare, Dickens etc may be found by searching under the author field and in the subject-heading field. Whereas famous persons who are not authors, for example Napoleon may be found by searching in the Subject-Heading field.
Don t worry if you see a NO ENTRY sign. You can still retrieve works under that name or term by choosing it and pressing Enter. Corporate Authors This field provides search options for ministries and departments falling under the governments of various countries, autonomous organizations, whether local or international, voluntary organizations, etc. This field is not only useful for calling up all holdings published by these bodies, but also for tracing publications issued by them, when one is unsure of the publication s title. Ministries and departments of whatever country will be preceded by the name of that country in English.
What happens when there are more than 100 records when searching under Author, Subject Heading, Corporate Author, Publisher or Main Term? If when searching under Author, Subject Heading, Corporate Author, Publisher or even Main Term, search results of over 100 records are called up, only the first 100 records are displayed on the screen. In order to call up the rest the downward arrow key ( ) on the keyboard has to be pressed for each subsequent 100 (or less) records.
This is what an online record looks like on screen Once you decide on an item you want, examine the whole record, including any notes, and write down the shelfmark and take note of the location. You must also make sure the status of the item is available. If the work is on loan, then you can write down the copy number, and ask the staff at the Circulation desk to reserve the book for you.
Table of Locations ABBREVIATIONS LOCATION BUILDING (* = MAIN LIBRARY BUILDING) Anatomy Dept Anatomy Dept. *Annexe *A/V Biomedical Dept *Cab *Cataloguing Dept CCT Chemistry Dept Clin Pharm Dept Comm s Office Periodical Reading Room Audiovisual Room 2 nd Floor Biomedical Dept. Cabinet (Melitensia Annexe) 1 st Floor Cataloguing Dept. Centre for Communication Technology Chemistry Dept. Clinical Pharmacology Dept. Communications Office Computer Studies Dept Computer Studies Dept. Computing Building *Dep Depository Economics Dept Economics Dept. FEMA (Faculty of Management) Educ Tech. Area Education Dept Educational Technology Area Education Dept. Centre for Communication Technology Elect Eng Dept Electrical Engineering Dept. Faculty of Engineering *Elyan Faculty of Law Fine Arts Health & Safety Herbarium Elyan Collection, Archives Room 2 nd Floor Faculty of Law Fine Arts Collection, Fine Arts Room 2 nd Floor Health and Safety Officer s Room Gardening Unit IHC Institute of Health Care Grounds of St. Luke s Hospital Infm n System Dept. of Information Systems Computing Building JCollege Junior College Junior College LIS Library & Information Studies Centre for Communication Technology
ABBREVIATIONS LOCATION BUILDING (* = Main Library Bld.) *LOIS MADS *Main Library Online Information Service Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies Main Library, 1 st & 2 nd Floors Ref. Dept. Main Library Management Dept Management Dept FEMA (Faculty of Management) Manufacturing Maths Dept Mech Eng Dept Medical *Melitensia Metallurgy *Ms *O/size Pathology Dept *Periodical Of Pharmacology Pharmacy Dept Prec Office Manufacturing Engineering Dept. Dept. of Mathematics Mechanical Engineering Dept. Medical Library, Medical School Melitensia, 2 nd Floor Metallurgy & Materials Engineering Dept. Manuscript Collection Archives Room 2 nd Floor Oversize Sections, Melitensia Annexe 1 st Floor & 2 nd Floor Dept of Pathology Periodicals Office Pharmacology Dept. Pharmacy Dept. Precincts Office Engineering Dept. Engineering Dept. Grounds of St. Luke s Hospital Faculty of Engineering Pub Policy Dept Dept of Public Policy Faculty of Law *Rare Books *Ref *Short Loan STEduc Theology Rare Books Collection, Archive Room 2 nd Floor Reference Dept. Short Loan Collection Science & Technology Education Faculty of Theology Dept. of Mathematics UGC University Gozo Centre Gozo WKS & Est Mngt Works & Estate Manager Buildings Office WPDC Workers Participation Development Centre FEMA (Faculty of Management)
Learn what the toolbar is all about Back Last Record Toggle all records Restart Next Record Dutch German Mark Record Sort by title, year of publication, author etc. Help English French Search combination And = retrieves records containing all the search terms Search Combination Or = retrieves records containing any of two or more search terms Search Combination And Not = excludes one search term in the record