USING THE HAWAII STATE LIBRARY ONLINE CATALOG

 

To get to the State Library's online catalog, go to: http://ipac.librarieshawaii.org 

 

The catalog will open to the Basic search screen, where you can choose your search type from the
pull-down menu.  For more search options, you can switch to the Advanced or Power screens.

If you are searching for a particular topic, you probably want to do either a SUBJECT or a KEYWORD search.  Make a smart decision about which to use:

A Subject search often works better for common topics or search terms.  You shouldn't have much of a problem with false hits (off-topic books), which are sometimes a problem in Keyword searching.

A Keyword search often works better if your topic or term is so unusual or narrow that there is no subject heading for that term.  It’s also a better choice if you want to combine separate words or phrases together with AND, OR, NOT—this is called doing a Boolean search.  But false hits (off-topic books) are often a problem with keyword searching.

 

SUBJECT SEARCH:

From the Search pull-down menu, choose Subject Browse (it's the bottom one in the menu).

Sample Subject searches:          Hawaii—history

                                                global warming

To limit your results to a specific library: When the result list comes up, use the Limit by pull-down menu on the right.  Scroll all the way down to the Loc (location) listings near the bottom, and select a library, and then click on the greenish arrow.

GENERAL KEYWORD SEARCH:

From the Search pull-down menu, choose General Keyword (the 4th one down).

You can combine terms with the Boolean linking words AND, OR, NOT. 

Use an asterisk for truncation (to find any word suffix)—for example, Hawaii* will match both Hawaii and Hawaiian.

Sample Keyword searches:     Gree* and sculpture

                                                           (truncation will find either "Greece" or "Greek")

                                               Hawaii* and (food or diet) and (traditional or ancient)

                                               (Put synonyms together in parentheses, using the linking word OR.)

To limit your results to a specific library:  When the result list comes up, use the Limit by pull-down menu on the right.  Scroll all the way down to the Loc (location) listings near the bottom, and select a library, and then click on the greenish arrow.

 

Marcia Kemble

Mid-Pacific Institute Library

rev. Feb. 28, 2006

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