Searching the Library Catalog

This tutorial will help you find books using the Library Catalog.

Finding Books in the Library Catalog

1. Starting from the UW-Madison Libraries’ homepage, choose “Catalog” from the drop-down menu.
2. Enter a book title, author name, or subject keywords into the search box and press “Enter” on your keyboard.
3. From the results page, you can select a book title to see its full record, which provides more information about the book, as well as where to find the book.

Advanced Search

• If you want to have more control over search results, you can use “Advanced Search.” 
  • On the UW-Madison Libraries’ homepage, the “Advanced Search” option is in the left-hand corner under the Catalog search box.
  • The options on  the “Advanced Catalog Search” page  allow you to search  by:
    • Subject
    • Call number
    • Publication Year
    • And more…
• On the right side of the page, there are options to limit your search.There is a “Format” list under “Limit your search.” You can use this list to limit your search results to materials of different formats. .
• Above the “Format” option, there is a list of  “Locations,” including specific UW-Madison Libraries and libraries of other UW campuses. To limit your search to materials located at a specific library or libraries, select  “Locations,” then select a UW campus, and next select  a library or libraries.
• Under the “Format” option there is “Language” limit option. To limit your search to materials in a specific language or languages, select “Language” and then a language or languages from the list.