Alverno College
The Information Universe
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Getting Information
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Online Library Catalog Sources

An online library catalog is an electronic resource that provides a record for each item that a library owns (or each item found in a library's collection). Within each catalog record you can find out where an item is located within the library as well as if it is available or checked out. Online catalogs include records for books, journals, magazines, newspapers, videos, sound recordings, maps and more. There are also links within some catalog records that allow you to access the contents of certain e-journals and other electronic library items. TOPCAT is the name of the Alverno Library's online catalog.
REMEMBER, you won't find journal or newspaper articles in an online catalog. For that you need to start in an online database.
Use an online library catalog
  • to find out what books and other materials (videos, periodicals, etc.) the library owns on a topic
  • to find where a specific item is located within the library

or continue to the next section of the Information Universe Tutorial -

How do I select a source?

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Last Updated 8/8/03