The Long Guide to Using BIBLOS

The Long Guide documents how to use BIBLOS, the DTS library catalog. It focuses on how to search/browse, but also covers other functions like placing holds and renewing books. The Guide is outlined below. Too busy to read the Long Guide? Try the Short Guide to Searching.

1. Introductory Overview
   • What's in BIBLOS?
   • Connection, Login, and Browser Configuration
   • Main Menu Options
   • Record Structure
   • Query Categories (author, title, subject, etc.)
   • Searching, Navigating, and Displaying Results
   • Try It Yourself Exercise: Simple Search and System Navigation
2. Basic Search
   • Case, character masking, and truncation
   • Logical operators: and, or, not
   • Grouping with Parentheses
   • Try It Yourself Exercise: Logical Operators
   • Proximity operators:same, near, adj
   • More about Grouping and Operator Precedence
   • Field Qualification
   • Try It Yourself Exercise: Proximity Operators
3. Power Search
   • Using multiple categories
   • Search Limits and Options
     Limiting or qualifying a search by Publication year, Language, Item types, and Academic department. Using the Match On option. Using the Sort By option.
   • Try It Yourself Exercise: Power Search
4. Hyperlinks and Cross References
   • Hyperlinked Fields
   • Cross References
   • Try It Yourself Exercise: Cross References
5. Browsing
   • A Sample Browse
   • Word Order in Fields and Subfields
   • Technical Note on Subfield Rotation in Subject Fields
   • When to Browse
   • Try It Yourself Exercise: Browsing
6. Special Retrieval Problems
   • Searching for Bible Passages
   • Searching for a Specific Item
   • Recovering from "Item not found"
   • Recovering from "Partial matches too many terms"
   • Diacritical Marks, Special Characters and Punctuation
   • Avoiding Overuse of the "Everything" Category
   • Picking Good Terms and Going Beyond LCSH
7. Printing/Emailing/Exporting Records
   Also includes Keep and Kept and Exporting to Z39.50 clients like EndNote
8. Requesting a hold
9. Using "My Account"
   • Viewing borrowed items, holds, bills
   • Renewing borrowed items
   • Changing your PIN
   • Concerning confidentiality
   • Try It Yourself Exercise: Self-Services (Holds, Renewals, etc.)
10. Course Reserves
    • Searching by author, title, or subject of work
    • Searching by course or instructor
    • Try It Yourself Exercise: Reserves
11. Appendix: Summary of search operators.
    The basics in extremely compressed and incomplete form. For the impatient.
12. Exercises.
    Some exercises to help you develop search skills, including some homework required for RS101.
13. Also an approximate pdf version of the Long Guide.