VCL Search FAQs

Catalog Searching Questions and Answers

Q. How does the new Search page work?
Q. What is the difference between a Keyword search and a Browse search?
Q. How do I know whether to use a keyword search or a browse search?
Q. What are LIMITs and how can I use them?
Q. What do the Limits mean and how are they applied?
Q. Do I have to use the LIMITs?
Q. Can I search for more than one thing at a time?
Q. I've found the title I want, but how can I see if you have any copies?
Q. How can I find titles by an author when I'm not sure how to spell the last name (or what the full name is)?
Q. How can I find a title when I don't know the author, or the full title?
Q. How can I find titles by a particular illustrator or composer?
Q. How can I find all audiobooks by a certain author, or just all audiobooks the Library owns?
Q. How can I find all movies/videos for children/teens or just all movies/videos the Library owns?
Q. What's the difference between doing a SUBJECT search and doing a GENERAL search?
Q. What else can I do from this screen?

Q. How does the new Search page work?
A. Simply select your search type and type in your search term(s). If you don't know what type of search you want, use the default General Keyword search. This is a Google type search. If your search term is spelled correctly, General Keyword search will give you the most results. However, many of the results may seem unrelated.

If you do a General Keyword search, when you get your results, use the Limit boxes to narrow your choices. For example, if do a General Keyword search for travel guides there are more than 279 travel guides in the catalog. If you Limit by "All Nonfiction" and re-execute the search using the arrow next to the Limit by box, your results are narrowed to 217 titles. If you Limit again by the Library, then your results will be narrowed to only nonfiction travel guides owned by that Library.

Q. What is the difference between a Keyword search and a Browse search?
A. Each title in our catalog has a record containing all information such as title, author, publication date, subject, material format, call number and much additional data. A keyword search seeks to match your search terms to more pieces of data in the title record than a browse search, therefore, more results are found for a keyword search than a browse search.

Q. How do I know whether to use a keyword search or a browse search?
A. If you know the EXACT title of the item you are searching for, use Title Browse. If you're not sure of the EXACT title, use Title Keyword. Same with authors name. The catalog uses the Library of Congress approved subject list, not common subject words, so the best technique for subject searching is the Subject Keyword search.

Q. What are LIMITs and how can I use them?
A. Limits are filters that help you narrow your search results. At this time, you can LIMIT your searches by choosing one item from All Items, OR one item from Kid's Items, OR one item from Teen Items, OR one Language. Your search will fail if you apply more than one LIMIT per search from the above categories. However, you may apply one LIMIT from any of the above categories along with one Library limit.

Q. What do the Limits mean and how are they applied?
A. Limits are essentially groupings of items by Collection Codes. When you look in the VCL Online Catalog and search for an item, you will see a record of the title, with publisher, description, edition and ISBN numbers at the top, along with cover art, when available. On the bottom part of the screen, under the Copy/Holding Information bar, you will see the location of each copy of the title that VCL owns, which collection it is in, volume or copy information, the status of the item and the due date of any checked out items. Collection codes are locational within each library. They show where to look at the library that owns that copy to find it. Collection codes are grouped together as like items to create a limit. If you search for SUBJECT * and LIMIT All Large Print, you will get all items that have collection codes of Adult Fiction Large Print, Adult Mystery Large Print, Adult Nonfiction Large Print, Adult Science Fiction large Print, Adult Western Large Print and Juvenile Large Print.

Q. Do I have to use the LIMITs?
A. No. They are optional.

Q. Can I search for more than one thing at a time, such as author = stephen king and subject = cars?
A. Yes. Type king, stephen in the author field and cars in the subject field.

Q. I've found the title I want, but how can I see if you have any copies?
A. Click on the title or on the link to the right of the title "Click here to see copies available."

Q. How can I find titles by an author when I'm not sure how to spell the last name (or what the full name is)?
A. Trying spelling the first few letters of the last name followed by an *, i.e., when you are looking for works by shakespeare, type shak* in the "Search for works by this AUTHOR" box.

Q. How can I find a title when I don't know the author, or the full title?
A. Try entering a few words from the title using *, i.e., when you are looking for the title " A Tale of Two Cities", but are not sure of the exact title, type "*two cities*" in the "Search for works with this TITLE" box.

Q. How can I find titles by a particular illustrator or composer?
A. Type the illustrator/composer/additional author's name in "Do a GENERAL search of the catalog" box.

Q. How can I find all audiobooks by a certain author, or just all audiobooks the Library owns?
A. You can combine a wildcard search using an asterisk (*) along with a limit to return many combinations, i.e., to find all audiobooks for Stephen King titles, type Stephen King in the "Search for works by this AUTHOR" box and click on (select) the All audiobooks limit. This will return all titles where Stephen King is the author and that are audiobooks of any format.

Q. How can I find all movies/videos for children/teens or just all movies/videos the Library owns?
A. You can combine a wildcard search using an asterisk (*) along with a limit to return many combinations, i.e., to find all movies in the kids' collections, type an asterisk (*) in the "Search for works with this TITLE" box and click on (select) the Kids' Movies and Videos limit. This will return all dvd/vhs movie titles housed in the Childrens' collections.

Q. What's the difference between doing a SUBJECT search and doing a GENERAL search?
A. If you search for cooking as a GENERAL search and select the LIMIT of "All Nonfiction books and materials", you will get books that have "cooking" listed in the title, subject, or notes fields in the item record. This means that you will get more titles returned. If you search for "cooking" as a SUBJECT and select the LIMIT of "All Nonfiction books and materials", you will get books that have "cooking" listed only in the title or subject fields in the item record. This means fewer results to your search.

Q. What else can I do from this screen?
A. On the View My Account tab, you can see the status of items you have checked out, renew those items, check the status/change/cancel any requests you have made; view any blocks on your account; add or change your email address; and change your PIN. Other tabs provide information outside of the Ventura County Library Online Catalog.