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Using LIUCat
LIUCat is the online library catalog for LIU. It lists books, periodical titles,
videos and other items held at various LIU campuses. It also provides full-text
links to thousands of e-books.
Go to http://liucat.lib.liu.edu or click the link on the library homepage.
Getting Started
Choose the search that you wish to perform.
Keyword search will look for the words that you type anywhere in the title,
subject, author, or description of the item.
Author, Title, and Subject searches will take you to an alphabetic list
that begins with the words that you type. You can then browse through this list.
You can search through the holdings of the libraries at all LIU campuses,
or you can limit your search to one campus.
If you do a title search for the word "catcher"
using the entire collection, you get this.
There are six books with the title, Catcher in the rye, and five additional books
whose titles start with the word "catcher".
If you click on the first title, you will see brief descriptions of the six editions of that book that LIU
owns. (If you had chosen a Keyword search, you would have been taken directly to this screen.)
In the case of the 1991 edition shown below, Brooklyn owns two copies
(one of which has been checked out), and Post owns one copy that is currently available.
If the item that you want has been checked out, you can click on
 .
When the item has been returned, you will be contacted, and it will be held for you.
You can also click on
if you want an item from another LIU campus to be sent here to LIU Post.
The image on the left indicates that this item is a book. LIUCat contains many different types of
material, including periodicals, DVDs, music, and more.
Making a List
To create a list of items that you are interested in, check the box to the left of each
item, and then click
on the top left to add them to your bookbag.
You can continue searching and adding new things.
When you are ready to see the contents of your bag, click
on the top center.
You can then print your list, or you can click
for more options. On the left, you can choose how your items will be displayed. On the right, you can choose to
have your list emailed to you, displayed to the screen for printing, or saved to your hard drive or
flash drive.
If you wish to create lists that you can refer back to later, instead of clicking on
"Add Marked to Bag", you can click on
LIUCat will then ask for your library barcode and PIN number* so that it can add the list to your account.
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Select "Create a new list"
from the drop-down menu. Or you can select a list that you created
earlier and add new items to it.
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Give your list a name.
You can also add a description to it. Then click the "Submit" button.
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To see your list, select "My Account"
from the drop-down menu under "My Library" near the upper left corner of the screen. You may have to login again.
* The first time that you login, your PIN number will be the last four digits of your student ID number
(or employee ID number for staff). If this doesn't work, try leaving it blank. If neither of these work,
or if you have forgotten your PIN, contact the
Circulation Department.
For security reasons, you should change your PIN the first time you login. |
More Search Options
In the upper right corner, you can find additional ways to search LIUCat.
Select the one that you want from the drop-down menu and click on the arrow.
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Instructor and Course
searches will provide a list of items that your professor has placed on reserve. If the item is a book, it will let
you know if it is available or if someone is currently using it. Reserve books may be used only for a brief time inside the
library. If the item is an article, a link will be provided so that you can download it. Each professor will provide
you with a password so that you can access their reserve articles.
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An Advanced Keyword search will provide
you with additional options and allow you to perform more specific or complex searches.
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Using the drop-down menus on the
left, you can choose to search for words that appear in a specific field, such as Subject,
Title, Author, or Note. Searching in Any field would be the same as
using the Keyword search from the basic search box discussed above.
You can combine the words that you type on the different lines using the Boolean operators
(explained below) selected from the drop-down menus on the right.
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You can add limits to your search.
Location will let you limit your search to only those materials in a particular collection at one of the
campuses of LIU. In this example, you will be shown only those items in the main circulating collection at
LIU Post that you will be allowed to check out (instead of reference books, periodicals,
and other non-circulating items).
Material Type will limit the kind of materials that your search will find, such as books, music,
videos, and online resources. The example will find only hardcopy books.
You can limit by the Language of the item.
You can limit by publication Year if you want only newer items.
You can limit by Publisher
You can Sort the results alphabetically by title, by date with the newest items
showing first, or by relevance with the items that are likely to be the most useful showing first.
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Boolean Operators
Also known as logical operators, these will give you more control over your search results.
Using the word "OR" will enable you to put similar terms into a single set so that you can search for all
of them at the same time. It will perform a broader search that will retrieve a larger number of items.
Each item will contain either one term or the other or both.
England OR Great Britain
Using the word "AND" will enable you to create a set that is the intersection of different
terms. It will perform a narrower search that will retrieve a smaller, more focused number of items. Each item must
contain all of the terms that you entered, not just one. The circle on the left contains all of the items about England.
The circle on the right contains all of the items about History. The shaded area in the center contains only those
items about both England and History.
England AND History
Using parentheses, you can make use of nested logic that will combine different Boolean
operators and more concepts in a single search statement.
Searching for (England OR Great Britain) AND History is the equivalent
of searching for England AND History and then searching for
Great Britain AND History.
You could get the same results by phrasing it as
(England AND History) OR (Great Britain AND History).
You can make your search even narrower by adding more concepts:
(England OR Great Britain) AND History AND (Marriage OR Family OR Divorce).
Note: Boolean operators can be used only when doing a Keyword search from the main search
screen or with any of the searches on the Advanced Keyword screen
Under Construction
Robert Delaney
October 2012
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