Searching a library catalog is going to be different than searching the web or a periodical index.

First, the number of records in the library catalog (over 250,000) is much smaller than the number of items indexed within a search engine (sometimes over 1 billion) or the number of article records located in a periodical index. As a result, you'll want to use very broad search terms to search a library catalog.

Second, the catalog doesn't contain the full text for any article or book. When you conduct a search, the catalog isn't finding your key terms in the full text but in a small, often brief, catalog record.

Third, unlike many web search engines, there are usually certain "rules" that need to be followed in order produce a successful search. Let's take a look at the most common types of searches used in the UW-P Library Catalog.