Help searching the Library catalogue (LibCat)

LibCat contains details of all the books and other materials in the Library and the Library store, covering over 100 years of publications, from the most up-to-date back. It also contains over 60,000 journal article abstracts taken from journals in the Library stock and details of those journal titles and holdings. Where possible there are links to freely available full text documents.

Enter the words and phrases which identify what you are looking for.

• If all the words are likely to be in the same entry or field, just type them one after the other (eg, for a title, icaew official list firms).
• If they are likely to be in different entries or fields, separate them with AND (eg, author and title word, Markham AND farming).
• Two authors should be separated by AND as they are different entries though in the same type of field (eg, Holmes AND Sugden).

You can truncate your terms using $. For instance, comput$ finds computer, computers, computing and so on.

Search for phrases using single quotes (eg, ‘revenue recognition’).

Select the field to search or browse from the drop down list. Search everything searches all fields, Author is restricted to author fields, subject to Subject fields and so on.

If you wish you can change how the search is performed by selecting Browse instead of Keyword.

• Keyword will bring up a list of books and articles if any contain your search terms.
• Browse brings up a list of headings, for instance Authors’ names, titles or subject headings, for you to choose from. The books associated with the heading chosen are then displayed.
• Keyword is the default search.

Click on Search Catalogue to search.

After searching in Quick Search (at the bottom of the screen listing the hits for your search) and on the first screen of Advanced Search, you can refine your search by:

• Format
  Choose ARTICLE ABSTRACT for journal article abstracts, SERIAL for journal titles, WEBSITE for digital sources and BOOK for books and everything else. ANY searches all formats.
• Pubyear
  Type publication dates here. For example, 2007 for items published in 2007, 2004 for items published after 2004, 2004 for items published before 2004 and 2004-2006 for items published between these dates.
• Sort By
  Allows you to sort by publication date, oldest first (Old to New), most recent first (New to Old), by author (AU), by subject (SU) or by title (TI).

To print or save the full records of a selected list of records:

• Select the records to print by clicking on the Keep box to the left of the brief or full records in the results list or details screen. The option will change to Remove. Click this to remove a title from your list.
• Click on the Print/Save selected records option in the menu bar above your search results.
• On the Print/Save selected records screen, select how the records will be sorted and click the Print/Save button.
• Your selected records will display in plain text. You can now use your browser options to save or print this page. You can also copy and paste the plain text into another application (eg, Word) on your computer.

Advanced Search allows you to combine searches in different fields, e.g. author and title. It also allows you to limit your search before searching. Conventions for entering your terms and refining the search are as for Home/Quick Search.

• Enter the words or phrases as before, but enter them in the appropriate fields (eg, Markham in the author box and farming in the title box).
• Clicking on the arrows at the side of the field label boxes allows you to choose any of the available fields to search from any box.
• You can link the boxes together using AND, OR, NOT using a second drop down box at the end of each line. Using AND means LibCat will select items containing all the terms linked with AND. Using NOT will exclude any items containing the terms linked by NOT. Using OR will find items containing any of the terms linked by OR.

Searching for ICAEW publications

To find ICAEW publications (issued by the ICAEW), you just need to include the words Institute Wales in your search.

If, for instance, you wanted to find out if the Library has a copy of the leaflet 'Why you need a chartered accountant' issued by the ICAEW, type

Institute Wales AND Why Chartered Accountant

and click on Search Everything. This will find any record which mentions the ICAEW as an author or in a note or anywhere in the record and also includes the title words.

Tip: Don't use these terms on their own. Always combine them with words from the title or other distinguishing words to do with the item you are looking for. The Library has over 100 years worth of ICAEW publications!

Tip: LibCat is case insensitive, that is it will find the word Institute whether you type it all in upper case, all in lower case or any combination of the two.

Searching for a book in a series

If you want to search for a book in a series, type the name of the series and click on the Series search icon. If the item has a series number which you know, then include that in your search. For instance, to find Technical Release TECH 12/00 type exactly those words and numbers in the search box and click on the Series search icon.

Tip: Series tend to be recorded in the singular in the catalogue (eg, Accountants Digest NOT Accountants Digests). If in doubt use the truncation symbol ($) with the singular (e.g. Digest$).

Looking for other books and articles like one you have already found

When you look at a full record for an item, some of the text is underlined and in blue. These are headings, links which you can click on.

For instance, if you have displayed an item whose author is J Collier and you want to see what else the Library holds by him, clicking on the name will list these items.

If you want books or articles on the same subject, click on the subject heading in the record which best describes what you are looking for. The heading's name is displayed next to the heading.

If you want BOOKS in the same series, for instance a list of all Financial Reporting Standards, click on the Series heading in a book record.

If you want JOURNAL ARTICLES about the same item in a series, (for instance articles on Financial Reporting Standard No. 13) click on the series heading in a journal article record about this FRS.