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Find Books and other materials
(Library Catalogs)

Click here to go directly to the LSUS Library catalog

For other Louisiana library catalogs, click here

To search the Worldcat, click here

For information about checking out books from the LSUS Library, click here

Some quick tips on searching for a topic in the library catalog:

  • If your search retrieves too many items, search by "subject" instead of "words or phrase."

    When you select “subject,” and type in your search terms, the catalog will only look for your terms in the subject fields, and not in all the other fields in the record.

    When you use the “words or phrase” search in the library catalog, the word(s) you type in will be searched in every field in the catalog record. In other words, if you search for “Wall Street,” the catalog searches in the title fields, the author fields, the subject fields, the publisher fields, the contents fields, etc. This explains why you sometimes get many items that don't seem to fit.

    The catalog searches for multiple terms in the same field, and only returns records that have those terms in the same field. So a record with “wall” in the title field, and “street” in the publisher field would not be returned. But records with “Wall Street” in the title, or in the subject, etc., will be returned.

  • If your search retrieves too many items like government documents or microfilm, and you really just want a book --

    Choose the “Power Search” option before typing in any terms. Type in your terms, and then scroll down and choose “Book” from the TYPE list.

    Sometimes you get a long list of hits, and each item indicates “1 item available at NOEL in DOCSUS,” or “1 item available at NOEL in M-M.” NOEL refers to the Noel Memorial library as a whole; DOCSUS and M-M are abbreviations for locations within the library. DOCSUS is United States Documents; these are located on the first floor. M-M is Microforms and Media, located in the Microforms and Media office on the second floor. MAIN is the 2nd floor, Main collection.

    Using Power Search, you can limit by location; the books that can be checked out are located in "2nd floor Main Collection."

  • If you get a list of titles, but they’re not quite what you are looking for, you can click on one of the topics in the box to the right of your list that says “You found items in these categories,” or “Try these too.” The catalog will then search that subject term and return some different hits.
  • When you get a list of titles, and some of them look promising, click on the "Full Details" button next to a title to get more complete information.

    If you find a book that looks good, but maybe it’s not quite a perfect match, look at the subject terms in the record. If one of the subject terms seems to be what you’re really looking for, click on it. The catalog will then retrieve records with that subject term.

    If you find an item that is just what you're looking for, click on the call number, and the catalog will retrieve a list of items with the same/similar call number(s). Items with the same call number or similar call numbers will be about the same subject or a closely related subject.