How to Use COMCat   Tags: books, libraries, reference, research  

COMCat Features

Searches

• Keyword
• Title
• Author
• Subject
• Series
• Call Number
• Limits

My Account

• Access your Acccount

• Saved Records
• Saved Searches
• Automatically Repeat Searches

• Search Preferences

• Books checked out
• Books on Hold
• Renew Books

• Personal Information

Find books by searching COMCat, COM Library's catalog.   

Below are brief description of the kinds of searches available in COMCat.  For more information on any one kind of these searches, click on the tab above.

Keyword searches
Searches for words in the record.  Possible keyword searches include 'All words' ; 'Any words'.  'Keyword Title (All words )' and 'Keyword Subject (Any words ) ' are also keyword searches.

Keyword (All words)
cat dog    -  will return records for books that have BOTH cat AND dog anywhere in the record

Keyword (Any words)
Cat dog   -  will return records for books that have EITHER cat OR dog anywhere in the record

Keyword Title (All words)
Is a keyword search, but searches for the word/words anywhere in the title .  e.g. gone wind   - will return records for books that have  BOTH gone AND wind, in the Title.

Keyword Subject (All words)
Is a keyword search, but searches for the word/words anywhere in the subject heading  e.g. twain criticism will return records for books that have  BOTH twain AND criticism in the Subject Heading.

Title begins with
Searches for the the beginning of the title.  Do not use 'a' 'an' or 'the' if it is the first word in the title.

Author (last name first)
Searches by the author's name, e.g. Twain Mark .  It is not necessary to capitalize, or to put a comma between last and first name, however it is necessary to put the last name first.

Subject begins with
Searches for the Subject heading as it is written in the record, e.g computer science will return a list of Subject headings that begin with Computer Science, but not books with Computer Science elsewhere in the subject heading or other places in the record.

Series title begins with 
Looks for books that are a part of a series, e.g. 'At issue'.  Like the 'Title begins with' searches, do not use 'a' 'an' or 'the' if it is the first word in the title.

 Call number Browse  searches of the call number of the book. 

To learn more about any of these searches, click on the appropriate tab above.