When To Use the Card Catalog

The card catalog is an alphabetical file of authors, subjects, and titles for material acquired by the University Library before 1978. It is located on the second floor of the Main Library, in the Information Desk area extending into the north and south corridors.

• The card catalog provides the only subject access to the Library's collection for many items acquired before 1978
• The locations given in the card catalog may not be accurate. Once a call number is obtained through the card catalog, do a call number search on the online catalog to find the item's current location.
• The online catalog provides subject access to items acquired since 1978

In addition to providing complete bibliographic information, the card multiple cross-references that make it particularly useful if you have incomplete or questionable information. For example, the card catalog has cross-references linking:

• pseudonyms to real names
• titular names (such as Earl or Duke) to given names
• current to previous names of journals
• separate titles of a series to the series title
• second or other authors to the main author

The card catalog is useful, as well, for locating translations and works by editors or important illustrators. Browsing through a few cards may reveal that the title sought is actually a sub-title or a separate volume of a larger work. The Library's collection is extremely diverse: if you don't find something through the online catalog and the item may have been acquired prior to 1978, try the card catalog!

How to Use the Card Catalog

[Sample Author Card from the Card Catalog]

The card catalog has a card for the author as well as cards for each of the tracings (the Arabic and Roman numerals at the bottom of the card). The online catalog, however, only provides access to the title and first author for many items found in the card catalog.

General Information for Using the Card Catalog

First-word articles (a, an, the) in any language are ignored in filing the cards. Certain other common words are also ignored for filing purposes. A list of the ignored words is posted at the end of each group of card catalog cases. Words are alphabetized exactly as spelled without regard to diacritical marks. Thus, ü= u , but æ=ae and so, for example there will be entries under both Encyclopaedia and Encyclopedia. Initialisms and acronyms (e.g., AFL-CIO) are filed at the beginning of each letter of the alphabet. Identical words are file in Author-Subject-Title order:

• Music Antonio Zoran, 1909- (Author)
• Music (Subject)
• Music at Midnight by Muriel Draper (Title)

Subject Searching in the Card Catalog

The first step in subject searching is translate your topic into the terminology of the catalog. This is usually a straightforward process, but language and perspective change over time, and the heading used by a library may sometimes be surprising. The University Library used the ninth edition of the Library of Congress Subject Headings for cataloging books by subject in the card catalog; a copy of this edition of Subject Headings is located in the main catalog area.

Begin searching under the narrowest term that encompasses your topic; cross-references will help lead you to the correct heading. The Library uses various approaches of subdividing larger topics and this may be confusing. Geographical regions may be subjects subdivided into smaller topics or subjects may be subdivided by geographical region. When a term used in the Subject Headings is followed by (Indirect) it means that the subject may have geographical subdivisions. For example, if you were interested in obtaining information on rodeo traditions in Montana, you would first look in the Subject Headings under "rodeo." The entry reads:

Rodeos (Indirect)
  sa Rodeo clowns
       Trick riding
       Western riding
       Women in rodeos

  xx Cowboys
       Horse-shows
       Horse sports
       Horsemanship
       Sports
       Western riding

The "Indirect" indicates that this heading may have subdivisions by geographic region, e.g., Rodeos--Montana. Note also the specificity of the "see also" (sa) suggestions. The "xx" entries are slightly broader headings at the next level of specificity. All of these headings are also "Indirect" and may have --Montana as a subdivision.

It may be, however, that even these headings are too specific for the Library's collection. In this case, you might try searching directly under a subdivision of Montana. Some possibilities are listed under "Montana" in the Subject Headings.

Filing Order of Cards in the Catalog

Make note of the exact subject heading given: its form and punctuation pinpoint its location in the card catalog. The following shows the filing order for various subject headings beginning with "Music":

		University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Gateway Homepage Comments to: libref@uiuc.edu Page history: Created 06/16/98 HMR. Last updated 07/08/1999 Raeann Dossett