English & Literature

The Library Catalog will search physical and digital holdings, including many (though not all) of the materials from within the library's databases. Search scopes can be set to help limit or expand results. These include but are not limited to: 

• "everything" available for searching in the Libraries of the Universities of Wisconsin [includes digital articles, journals, books, ebooks, and more]
• "books and Media (UW Superior)" 

Here are a few tips for conducting searches using the Search @UW Library Catalog: 

1. If looking for something specific, be clear on what you are looking for. This sounds obvious, but many poetic and literary works, in particular, may exist in multiple translations or editions, for instance. So:

   • what is the title?

   • who is the author?

   • is there a publication date or specific edition or translation sought?

   • what kind of thing is this (book, article, etc)? 

   • here is an example of a search for a specific book title from the Banned and Challenged Books guide

2. If you are looking more for general ideas, topics, or categories of works than for a specific example of an item, and you find something in the Search@UW library catalog that is of interest, look around on the screen for more information in the catalog record

   • subject terms are nearly always of interest, no matter the topic or discipline, and can be used to find related items

   • in English (and especially in Literature), genre terms may also be helpful in finding related kinds of works

   • from the Banned and Challenged Books guide, here is an example of ways to narrow searches using related options

This library organizes its physical materials in line with the classification system of the Library of Congress. 

• P = Language, Literature, and Fiction
• This is inclusive of subcategories ranging from PA (Greek and Latin Language and Literature) to PZ (Fiction and Juvenile belles lettres)

This call number system is applied across a few collections and locations: 

• The library's general collection, found in the largest shelves in the Garden Level basement. This shelving may also be called the "library stacks" or just "stacks."
• The library's juvenile collection, located on the second floor (note: there are a lot of PZs, here!) 
• The library's Graphic Novel and Popular Reading collections, located on the first or ground floor. 

In the Library of Congress classification schema, letters of the alphabet represent large categories. Then, sets of numerals and other letters  follow in order to provide further subdivision groupings. Basically, when you are browsing, you think about the alphabet and follow it to your letter, then think about counting numbers (tracing any decimals one at a time) and continue to follow each segment along. 

Example: Black American short stories / edited by John Henrik Clarke. Call number PS647.A35 B56 1993  (Garden Level Books). Broken out, the call number is: 

PS

647

A

35

B

56

1993

The Garden Level is the Basement. This call number begins with PS (American Literature).

There are three columns of shelves in the widest part of the basement, and walking the full length of a column is sometimes necessary (especially when getting used to the ordering). 

So if I were to look for this book: 

• I would go to the basement and look at the shelf labels and browse until I found PS. It may or may not be labeled directly, so if I don't see the letters "PS" on a sign, I can know it falls between other letters, such as after PR (because R comes before S) and PT (as T follows S in the utilized alphabet). 
• Once I found the PS section, I would need to look for the "600s." So this will not be single, double, or quadruple numerals. In other words, it is not to be found within the 3000s (which I may walk through on my way) nor the 10s, but somewhere in between.
• Once I found 647, I would look for "A" and then for 35; then for B and 56. There are not many books on our shelves in the 647 range, so it's a quick find. 
• 1993 is the date of publication. 
• In this case, it is a single volume, but if there were multiple volumes, they would be indicated at the end with a "V" and a numeral