PVAMU's Library Catalog is where you go to find physical resources. It is organized by the Library of Congress classification system. It's useful to know LC classifications for both the online querying of our catalog and for in-person searching. As a collection development librarian, I often search by LC classification to find new resources to buy.
Features
- Query Filters - As shown in the image above, the query filter defaults to Keyword, which just means that it will query both the record and the linked full-text for what is typed. If you want to restrict these results, choose to only query for the title, author, subject, or ISBN. An ISBN is a 10-13 long number string that is a unique key for the book; searching with an ISBN should only give one result.
- Collection Filters - Defaults on querying all collections in the PVAMU system, including some of which are off-campus. If a user is only willing to travel to John B. Coleman Library to retrieve their resource (or other libraries on campus, e.g. Henry Music Library), I recommend limiting it as such.
- Advanced Search - Similar to the advanced search accessible from the main library page, this search allows for multiple fields and multiple query filters. For example, can search for a title and an author in the same query. Also includes more detailed collection filters (can pick floor as well as building), material type, language, publication year, and publisher.
Please note that there are more features available, but they may be explained in-detail in other tabs on this course guide.
