Author Browse

To search by author, enter the last name in the Author Browse box in the search menu. It is not necessary to include the first name or initial, however when the surname is common, the author's first name or initial can be included.

Example: twain m

SIRIS will take you to a list of names most closely matching to the name you entered and will display the number of titles retrieved for each author.

Hyphenated names may be searched by including the hyphen or leaving a space.

Example: garcia-franco OR garcia franco

Remember that authors may be persons (including co-authors, editors, compilers, etc.), OR names of organizations, agencies, conferences, etc.

Example: national academy of sciences

When searching for a corporate author and the full name is not known, try using a keyword author search (see Keyword Searching)

Title Browse

To search by title, enter some terms in the Title Browse box in the search menu. Exclude initial articles (e.g. The, An, La, Der) but include articles within a title (e.g. Gone with the Wind.) Apostrophes are ignored by the system. When Searching hyphenated words, either include hyphens or leave a space between the two words. SIRIS will display search results as a list of titles closest to the word(s) you enter.

Examples:
Sound and the Fury
Whos Who in America OR Who's Who in America
East-west encounter OR East west encounter

Where the exact order of the title words is not known, try using a keyword title search (see Keyword Searches) Note: To browse journal or magazine titles, enter terms in the Serial Title Browse box.

Subject Browse

An item's subject describes what the item is about. An item may have several subjects assigned to it.

NOTE THAT THE SUBJECT SEARCH USES STANDARDIZED LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS.

(If your search term finds no matches, the subject term you entered is probably not a Library of Congress Subject Heading. Consider using your term as a keyword search then look at the full display of any items that appear relevant. The subject headings used in those records should be useful in reformulating your search. Clicking on the subject heading will perform a search on that heading.)

To search by subject, enter a term in the Subject Browse box in the search screen. Type the appropriate subject term in the search box at the bottom of the screen. Enter only the initial portion of a term if you are not sure of the exact heading.

Example: bird watching

The display will bring you to a list of subject headings which most closely match the one entered. "See" references direct you to the correct form of a heading. "See Also" references direct you to related subject headings.

Subdivisions in Subject Headings

Subject headings may be divided into parts called subdivisions. To search for a subject with subdivisions, separate each part of the heading with two hyphens (--).

Example: california--history

Call Number Browse

To search by call number enter the number in the Call Number Browse box in the search menu. Spaces and punctuation are ignored in number searching.

Examples:

Q1 N215
Q1.N215
Q1N215

Serial Title Browse

To see if the SI Libraries has a particular journal in its holdings, enter the first few words of the title in the Serial Title Browse box in the search menu.

Example: Scientific American

(Remember that Browsing Serials will find titles of journals and magazines held by SI Libraries, but will not find articles within journals and magazines. Please ask a librarian about article databases for individual papers within journals.)