Understanding the Information Provided by Online Catalogs

Once you have done a search, you need to sort through your options. In addition to the call number or shelf location and the author and title, the catalog record indicates where the work was published and when. Additional information provided typically includes how many pages the work contains, notes about the contents and subject headings, and its location and availability.

Although each system presents information in slightly different ways, the elements included generally are the same:

The type of search.
The terms used in the search.
The number of results found by the search.
Publication information.
Information about the source's location in the library.
Additional information.