Orbis Library Catalog Help
Search Orbis Help
Advanced Search
Use Advanced Search to perform more complex searches in Orbis, such as restricting a search to a particular field in the catalog record, or limiting to a particular library on campus. You may also combine these elements in searches.
Basic Search Help
The Basic Search screen allows you to select from a drop down list to search by either Keyword, Title, Journal Title, Author, Subject, Call number LC or Local, Author (sorted by title), and Special Collections Subject.
The default search is a ranked keyword and the default operator is “and”.
Subject Search
The Subject search option is used to retrieve records using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The results of this type of search are displayed in a browsable search results list.
Author Search
Author searching in Orbis enables you to locate materials by the name of authors, editors, composers, translators, arrangers, illustrators, and other people associated with a title. Authors can also be organizations, institutions, governments, government bodies, or the names of symposia.
New Books
New Books is a list of new materials received by the library in the last month, including books, CDs, videos, etc. Newspapers, journals, and other serials are not included.
Select Location: To view New Books, first select a library location. If you do not see the specific location you are interested in, select 'All locations'.
Search History
Search History allows you to re-run or edit searches you have performed in your current session. The most recent 20 searches are displayed. The search history will reset each time the current session times out (i.e. the screen returns to the new search page, approximately every 10 min.).
Searching in non-Roman script
General Recommendations for Searching
Search by Romanization
For research in languages using non-Roman scripts, such as Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and Russian, searching by Romanization is usually the most effective and reliable way to find non-roman language materials in Orbis.
Help with Special Collections in Orbis
In addition to keyword, author, title, and subject searches, the following searches and limits may be helpful in locating rare books, archives, manuscripts, visual materials, and other special collections materials in Orbis.
Titles Index
Title List
The title list summarizes your search results. To display the record details associated with a title, click on the underlined title to jump to the details. You can page through your results by using the scroll bar located along the right edge of the screen or the Next button located at the lower right corner.