FINDING MATERIAL IN THE LIBRARY
The Basic Concept:
The basic thing to remember is that the library shelves hold what can be called “packages” of “texts,” not the “texts” themselves.
Sometimes (as in the case of a monograph), the “package” and the “text” are coterminous.
Often (as in the case of a journal [=package] and a journal article [=text], or a book of essays [=package] and an essay [=text]), they are not.
What is Pittcat?
Pittcat, like all library catalogs, is basically a tool for finding “packages” on the shelves of a particular library. (In the old days, you used to have to go to that library and search through cards in drawers; now you can access the records through the Internet. We also used to have to walk through snow, uphill both ways, to get to that library.)
This means that:
--books and journals (“packages”) appear by title in the catalog.
--books appear by author or editor.
--individual chapter or article titles (“texts”) do not appear in the catalog.
If you have a reference (from a bibliography or a footnote in a secondary source) to an article in a journal or an essay in a book of essays, you should have all the information needed to identify the “package” in which the chapter, article, or essay appears in order to find the title of the “package” in the library catalog and hence to find the “package” on the library shelf.
Example:
Matt Goldish, “Newton on Kabbalah,” in The Books of Nature and Scripture, ed. James E. Force and Richard H. Popkin. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1994, pp. 89-104.
The “text” you want to read is Goldish’s article on “Newton on Kabbalah.”
If you enter Goldish as author in Pittcat as follows:
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you will get this:
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OPAC Name
Headings Search |
Full Title |
Date |
Library System |
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1 |
Judaism in the theology of Sir
Isaac Newton / by Matt Goldish. |
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2 |
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These look like pretty interesting books--and certainly related to “Newton on Kabbalah.” But these are not the articles you are looking for.
Try “Newton on Kabbalah” as title:
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You will get this:
Your search resulted in no hits.
PITTCat found no records that matched your
search terms.
Yikes. But then you will
return to the bibliographical citation and look it over more carefully: it appears that Goldish
has published an article in a book edited by James Force and Richard Popkin
with the title: The Books of Nature and Scripture.
Try entering this title in Pittcat--leaving out the definite article!
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You will get the following record:
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Title: |
The books of nature and Scripture : recent essays on natural
philosophy, theology, and Biblical criticism in the Netherlands of Spinoza's
time and the British Isles of Newton's time / edited by James E. Force and
Richard H. Popkin. |
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Published: |
Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic,
c1994. |
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Physical Description: |
xviii, 223 p. ; 25 cm. |
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LC Subject
Heading(s) (limits do not apply): |
Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727
--Religion. |
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Series: |
Archives internationales d'histoire des idées =
International archives of the history of ideas ; 139 |
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Location: |
Hillman Library - General Collection |
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Call Number: |
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Status: |
copy1 Checked Out - Due on 09/09/2003 |
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VOILA! You know have the record of the “package”; its location (Hillman) and its call number (where in Hillman you can find it in the shelf)
As you can see, at the moment that I am composing this guide, the book is checked out (actually it’s in my hand). If you get such a notice, you can recall the book. Follow the instructions on the screen or ask a librarian. The person with the book, in this case me, will get a notice from the library that the book has been recalled and I will have to return it. (This may seem obvious, but I have encountered seniors, on the brink of graduation, who were unaware that books could be recalled.)
You could also have reached this record by listing “force, james” or “popkin, richard” as the author. But this could take you longer. Hillman lists 39 books under Popkin, Richard Henry as author or editor.
What if you can’t find the book you need in the Pitt
Libraries?
Use PALCI to request the book from one of the other participating libraries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. You can request the book on-line and it will be delivered to Hillman (or the Pitt library of your choice) within a week (usually 2-3 days).
It’s easy, it’s free, it’s fun. Enjoy: http://palci.library.pitt.edu/~ursa/PITT_login.html
What if you can’t find the journal you need in the Pitt
Libraries?
It may be on-line and available to Pitt students, staff, and faculty. If so, however, it should be appear in Pittcat.
If it doesn’t appear that Pitt owns the volume you need and
doesn’t have an electronic subscription or subscription to the on-line database
that archives that journal, you will have to request the article via ILL. This costs money so you may want to just wait
until you are visiting a friend in Philadelphia or New York to get the article.
When you do research:
When you do research of any sort, you will need to generate a bibliography of relevant material on your topic. Since much useful information is published in journal articles and in book chapters and not only in monographs, you must not limit your searching to Pittcat.
To find articles relevant to your subject, you need to search bibliographical databases. These are linked from the library web page: http://www.library.pitt.edu/articles/a_z.html
In addition to the databases linked there, here is one of the most useful databases for the Jewish studies, “RAMBI” or the Index of Articles in Jewish Studies:
http://libnet1.ac.il/~libnet/rmb/rmb.htm