Talon is the key tool for searching the collections of Reed Library and the Center of Southwest Studies. All types of materials have been cataloged and included in the Library database: video recordings, magazine and journal titles (but NOT titles of individual articles), electronic and multimedia materials, maps, music and sound recordings, compact discs and books. Materials assigned to classes and put on reserve at the circulation desk can also be browsed in the catalog by their titles or by the assigning professor's name.

Library Access

Any of the networked computers in the Library provide access to Talon. A few express workstations are closest to the entrance for quick look ups. From the main Library Web page, select "Library Catalog" from the upper left of the screen.

Outside the Library

Help screens and prompts help you search Talon. If you follow on-screen instructions, you'll have little difficulty. The following will help you decide how to begin your search. First, select which type of search you want to do. The main menu in Talon includes the options described below.

Searching using the Library of Congress Subject Headings option allows you to search a standardized subject heading index based on the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). These are headings -- assigned to each book, audiovisual, or other item -- from a controlled vocabulary list created by the Library of Congress.

In a controlled vocabulary system, decisions are made regarding exact wording to be used to describe a subject. An example will help to clarify this idea. Say I was looking for information on building energy efficient housing. If I try searching Talon using the word "housing" in a Library of Congress Subject Heading search, I get only three items matching this heading, and none of them seem to have much to do with actually building houses. See the list of results below.

I'm naturally doubtful that these results reflect everything the Reed Library has on housing, and I'm still hoping to find items on energy efficient housing -- a popular topic, I would think. I must not be choosing the wording used in LCSH to describe housing construction. In fact, the above titles suggest the subject term "housing" may be applied to works taking a social sciences approach to studying the overall idea of housing. So, I switch to a keyword search, a better option for guessing at words, and I try entering the search statement "energy and houses", guessing that these words may describe several types of energy efficient housing and that they would be good guesses at words occurring in titles of books on the subject. Note the use of the Boolean "and". From this search, I get the results displayed below.

I'm now doing much better! I've got some titles that look pretty good. Now, I can still make use of LCSH. To do this, I select a title that looks particularly interesting from this initial list. After looking at the list, I've decided I may want to focus on houses that make use of solar energy. So, I select the title Passive Solar Construction Handbook from the list by clicking on its title. This action brings up the full record for that book. See below.

From this record I see several things:

• In the top frame of the record, I see menu buttons indicating actions I can take in the catalog.
• Also in the top frame, I see the search I entered.
• In the middle frame, I see the part of the full catalog description for the book.
• In the bottom frame, I see where the item is shelved (in the oversize books on the main floor of the library), the call number for the item and that the item is not checked out. If the book was checked out, a due date would appear where the word "Available" is shown in this frame.

The three frames on the screen scroll separately. If I scroll the middle frame that contains the catalog description of the book, I will be able to see the subject headings applied to this particular book. Pictured below is the middle frame of this book record with the subject headings revealed. Notice that the headings are active Web links. This is important!

If I click on the subject heading "Solar houses -- Design and construction", I see that there are five items in the Library's collection that have this subject heading applied to them. I also see, from the list of subject headings (pictured below), that there are other subject headings that may prove helpful in my research. Now, I can click on a chosen heading to retrieve other items on the given subject, and I can use the "back" button in Netscape to return to this list to keep exploring related subjects!

Key Points to Learn from this Example

• The Library of Congress Subject Headings are a powerful organizing tool used to help researchers locate more comprehensive sets of items on a topic than is possible through using word searching alone. LCSH uses the principle of controlled vocabulary to accomplish this function.
• You can use LCSH to improve your search results, even if you don't start out with a subject heading search.

Note: LCSH is also published in print in four large red volumes. If you prefer to determine appropriate subject headings before searching, or if you cannot seem to locate appropriate subject headings through doing a few keyword searches, you may use these volumes. They're shelved behind the reference desk. Also, if you have trouble of any kind in searching Talon, ask the reference librarian on duty to help you out. With a few hints, you should be on your way!

Limiting a search further narrows a set of search results retrieved. Limiting is especially useful when a particular format, such as video, is desired. To limit, once you have performed a search and retrieved some records, select the "limit this search" button from the results list display screen.

There are eight types of limits available in Talon.

1. Material Types

   BOOK/SERIAL -- books or periodicals ARCHIVAL MATL -- archives -- Southwest Center only SCORE/PRINTMUS -- music scores SCORE/MSMUSIC -- music scores MAP/PRINTED -- maps MAP/MS -- manuscript maps VISUAL MATL -- films, videos, paintings SPOKEN RCRDNG -- in any audio format such as tape or CD SOUND RCRDNG -- more typical than spoken recording, also may be any type of recording 2-D GRAPHIC

   COMPUTER FILE -- CD-ROMs, diskettes, multimedia KIT -- usually a classroom tool MIXED MEDIA -- includes mixed formats -- e.g., print and computer disk. 3-D OBJECT -- physical artifact STATE DOC -- state government publications (not yet used at FLC) MICROFILM PER CURRENT -- Current Periodical (not yet available at FLC) PER CLOSED -- periodical not currently received (not yet available)

   Year of publication; allows for a range of years.
   

   Language of the publication; may be the translated language rather than the original.
   

   Publisher of the material, such as HW Wilson, Gale, Knopf, etc. Presently, this limit is not available.
   

   Where Located in the FLC Library, i.e., Reference, Southwest Center, Reserve, Maps, Media.

   Words in the Author
   limits the current set of materials retrieved to those also containing the author "word(s)" specified here.

   Words in the Title
   limits the current set of materials retrieved to those also containing the title word(s) specified here.

   Words in the Subject
   limits the current set of materials retrieved to those also containing the subject word(s) specified here.

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   Printing Results

   Printing from the library catalog is discouraged since it often means wasting a great deal of paper when call numbers can easily be written down. However, occasionally, printing out results can be useful. If you have a fairly large set of results for which you would like to see the titles and call numbers in a list that you can print, use the "extended display" button at the top of the search results list screen to display the titles along with their call numbers and other location information. Then use the Web browser print option to print the list.

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   Exiting Talon

   Inside the Library, simply click the "home" button in Netscape to return to the Library's main Web page. This action will leave the workstation available and ready to use for another researcher. At home or in other locations, you can simply close your Web browser if you are finished using the Web, or you can go to another location on the Web without worrying about closing down the catalog. When leaving a computer lab workstation, remember, as always, to log out.

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   Interlibrary Loan

   For research projects and other needs, you'll want to explore books available at other libraries. Although a regular search in Talon, as shown above, is limited to materials in Fort Lewis College collections, the search can easily be extended by clicking on Search Prospector Unified Catalog. The above examples have not been updated to show this option as a button, but it will be found at the top of the screen once a search has been executed. You can also go to Prospector directly. For more details, see the Prospector information page.

   You can also search for books outside Reed Library using FirstSearch WorldCat. All FirstSearch /I> databases allow you to request Interlibrary loans by selecting an option from within the database.

   For more details, see Interlibrary Loan. Interlibrary loans are free except for a ten cents per page charge for photocopied articles.

   Note: You must be able to wait at least one to two weeks to receive your loan. Do not place interlibrary loans for items needed within a day or two! Interlibrary loan is not an option when you wait until the last minute. Prospector requests are usually sent within a few days and offers the faster service of the various oprioins.

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   Authors: Tina Evans Greenwood and Minna Sellers
   Please send comments to Reed Library Reference
   Page created August 28, 1997; last updated Aug 10, 2001, mds.
   URL=http://library.fortlewis.edu/collections/catalog.asp