The library catalogue lists the library's holdings of books, printed journals, reports, conference proceedings, and audio-visual materials. Hawthorn students may use the library catalogue to find resources, however, borrowing may be restricted to printed books. Note: EBooks may be restricted to University of Melbourne students and staff.
Use the University of Melbourne catalogue to search by author or title (if known), or by keyword for topics.
You need to take note of the Location (the library, and the collection within the library), the call number (where to locate the item on the shelf) and the availability (whether on loan, missing or available for use/borrowing).
To find books on a particular subject, use a keyword search on the library catalogue. For example:
mesopotamia
"ancient egypt"
virgil
"classical mythology"
Keyword searching often retrieves a large number of results. You can limit your search by using AND and adding more keywords to retrieve resources that have both words in the record. For example:
mesopotamia AND religion
"ancient egypt" AND pyramids.
virgil AND aeneid
"classical mythology" AND art.
Use OR to broaden your search to find material related to similar keywords in the one search:
Rome AND (military OR warfare)
Refer to the search tips for details on how to search on the library catalogue effectively. These tips also work with databases.
Another way to navigate the catalogue is to use the hyperlinked subject headings in item records. Once clicked on, these headings will show you related subjects around your area and the all the books that the library has related to that subject. Refer to the images below.
If you just have an essay topic and are looking for information, we suggest you perform a keyword search.
Sample Topic: You have been asked to write an essay about nature and nurture and gifted children .
Click here to see results from your keyword search statement: Nature and nurture and gifted children
Further help on using keywords can be forund on the catalogue's keywords page