Library Instruction for Liberal Arts

Social Sciences

Library Guide for Searching the Oklahoma Union Catalog

This guide is designed to help students use the Oklahoma Union Catalog. The guide will cover a description of the Oklahoma Union Catalog, use and purpose of the database, proposed search approaches, and how to obtain material found on the Catalog.

Description

The NSU Library is one of hundreds of school, public and academic libraries in the southern Plains providing access to the Oklahoma Union Catalog. The reverse is also true, in that the Oklahoma Union Catalog provides access to hundreds of academic, school and public library catalogs in this region, including the NSU Library. If you are visiting another library in Oklahoma, such as a public library, it is likely that you will have access to the Oklahoma Union Catalog at that location. Actually, the Oklahoma Union Catalog could be considered misnamed, since this database indexes the collections of libraries in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. Few, if any, of the items found on the Oklahoma Union Catalog are available in full text format on this database. While the Oklahoma Union Catalog indexes many different types of library materials and formats, it is most useful for finding books not owned by the NSU Library system. The NSU Library system includes the John Vaughan Library in Tahlequah, and the branch sites in Muskogee and Broken Arrow. To find books owned by NSU, it is best not to use the Oklahoma Union Catalog. Instead, use the NSU Library online library catalog.

Use and Purpose

As stated above, the Oklahoma Union Catalog is most useful for identifying material not owned by the NSU Libraries. As a result, the it can be an extremely valuable tool for discovering and obtaining additional resources for a particular research project or paper, beyond what the NSU Library system can provide. Two options are available for obtaining these additional resources:

1. First, since the Oklahoma Union Catalog lists the library or libraries owning the needed item, you would have the option of driving to that location to read the item. However, it should be emphasized that the Oklahoma Union Catalog reports only if a particular library owns the item, not if the item is available at the time.

2. Second, interlibrary loan can almost certainly obtain a needed print publication, such as a book, for you by sending out a request for it to all libraries in the region, on your behalf. The interlibrary loan option will be further discussed below.

Searching

1. To access the Oklahoma Union Catalog from the NSU Library web site, drag the cursor over Books under Resources on the Library home page. (The button at the top of this tutorial also links to the Oklahoma Union Catalog.)

2. Select OK Libraries.

3. Next, click Begin.

4. Notice that the default setting searches Oklahoma libraries only. Searchers have the option of staying with this default setting, or changing the parameters to search any combination of library catalogs in Oklahoma, Kansas or Texas (TLC). These state options are available on both the basic and advanced search screens.

5. There are many options, and combinations of options, available from the tabs found near the top of the initial search screen. However, the best search approach, with the most options, is to select the Advanced Search screen.

6. Once the Advanced Search screen has loaded, notice the three "Search For" boxes near the center of the screen..

7. Next, use the cursor to access a drop-down menu to the right of one of the search boxes. Notice the large number of available search field options. This includes options that support limiting word searches to traditional fields such as title, author, and subject. The below graphic only shows some of the options.

8. The Advanced Search mode also supports limiting searches by publication year(s), media type, language, etc.

9. The use of the and, or, and not operators (boolean operators) can also help refine the search results, by including or excluding certain words.

10. Finally, when looking over the results of any search run on the Oklahoma Union Catalog it is important to keep in mind the following two points:

• The Oklahoma Union Catalog does not delete any books or other materials which have been withdrawn by a member library. As a result, some search results may report an item which is no longer owned by the library listed as owning it.
• If sorting the search results by Newest Title First, or if expecting the Oklahoma Union Catalog to include books which have just been released by a publisher, keep in mind that it takes at least one month for most newly cataloged items to be loaded. The very latest novel or a just released book may not yet be listed in the Oklahoma Union Catalog.

Interlibrary Loan

As noted above, if the NSU Library system does not own the needed item, it is likely that Interlibrary Loan will be able to obtain a copy for you. To learn about interlibrary loan policies and procedures, and for information on how to utilize this service either on campus or as a distance education student, please contact the Interlibrary Loan office or the resource coordinator listed below. One key to using interlibrary loan services successfully is to start your research early so that interlibrary loan requests will arrive in time. On average, it takes about ten business days to obtain material through interlibrary loan. However, keep in mind that the closer the lending the library is to NSU, generally the quicker the item will be received. Therefore, using the Oklahoma Union Catalog to help identify resources is a very effective way to obtain interlibrary loan items as quickly as possible.