Nineteenth-century artistic rendering of the Library of Alexandria by the German artist O. Von Corven How to Use the UCC Library Catalog 

This 19th century artistic rendering of the Library of Alexandria by O. Von Corven, shows that the ancient library has a lot in common with modern libraries found across the world, including at UCC. Stacks of books surround busy readers shuffling through pages, a librarian taking some items down from a bookcase while an eager reader awaits below. Also like UCC, the Library of Alexandria was a research institution, which means that its main focus was on academic inquiry instead of pleasure reading. While this ancient library and our modern one function in a similar way, many things have changed in the field of librarianship. Such as how we catalog our collections, and how our patrons access those collections. Currently, the UCC library uses the Dewey Decimal System, and while we don't have a physical card catalog, we do have a digital one. Read below for steps on how to access and use this catalog. 

 

 

 

  • To access the UCC catalog, first visit our website by clicking here.
  • Then click on "Databases." A drop down menu will appear, then click on "Library Catalog" on the bottom of the menu. 
  • You should see a page that looks like the image below. Type your inquiry in the search bar. This could be a keyword, author name, or title. There are other options in the drop down menu. 

 screen shot of library catalog

  • Lets say that you want to find a book on the Library of Alexandria. After typing that subject in to the search bar and hitting enter, there will be a display of titles with that key word in the record. 

screenshot of search results

  • From here, click on a title that seems to fit your interest. For this example, lets look at the fourth title. 
  • If we had a card catalog, this is the information that would be displayed on this item's card. But where is this book located in the library collection? For that we look at the Dewey Decimal Number, or call number, on the bottom of the record. For this item, the call number is "027 BAT." 

  • Take this number and find the same number in the bookcases in the library. The collection is ordered from 000 to 999, with the 000's being towards the front of the building. If you get lost, that's okay. Ask a library staffer for help.  

a hand selecting a book from a shelf

  • Here is the book on the shelf. Note how the other call numbers are in order. 
  • You have read the book, but you don't want to check it out. That's okay, instead of putting it back on the shelf, we ask that you instead put it on one of these carts, or hand it to a library staffer to re-shelve.