DaTA Catalog Quick Guide
DaTA is the campus libraries' main search engine, for any type of item, printed or digital, in the libraries' collections and in databases from various online resources
The aim of this Quick Guide is to assist and direct with various aspects regarding the operation of the catalog.
To enable all options of search and access:
it is first recommended to log into your account on the upper right-hand-side of the screen which will redirect you to the MyTau login.
Searching Title, Author, or Subject
Enter the search text string in the main search field:
You may choose to limit the results by type of material: Book, Article, or Journals, prior to viewing the search results, by clicking one of these options below the search field area.
Switching to Advanced Search Mode
Click "ADVANCED SEARCH" to the right of the search field:
Preforming an Advanced Search
Preform the search by combining search text strings:
Enter the main search text.
Enter any secondary search text in the subsequent line(s) - you may add more lines with other search terms by clicking "ADD A NEW LINE."
The bottom line of the search area shows the entire search string next to the green arrow .
You may choose among various search operators - include/omit certain results or specify more exact search strings > see below
You may define the search field according to parameters such as Title, Subject, Author, etc.
You may also filter the search result on the right column according to: Material Type, Language, Dates of Publication (Start - from when; End - until when).
The above search is for Alice in Wonderland - "any field" > that is, either as title, for example, the book by that name, or as a subject, for example, the syndrome by that name, plus two additional "subject" queries - psychoanalysis and women without specifying material type, languages, or publication dates.
Search operators are certain characters or words that help to specify or limit/expand or focus search results.
These can be applied either to words in the search strings or to parameters of the search query itself:
Asterisk or Question Mark
An asterisk * added as a suffix will yield search results of words with different endings - In advanced search mode you can choose "starts with" in lieu of an asterisk.
A question mark ? added anywhere in a word will yield search results of words with different spellings.
You can change "psychoanalysis" (in the previous example) to psych* to yield any word that starts with "psych", for example, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, psyche, etc.
You can change "women" (in the previous example) to "wom?n" to yield results with either spelling: woman or women.
Quotation Marks
These are used to specify an exact search text string:
Here the search will yield results with the exact phrase "Alice in Wonderland" in that order of words, whereas without the quotation marks, DaTA will yield results with the word "Alice" alone, the word "Wonderland" alone, or their combination in any order: "Alice" or "Wonderland" can appear first.
In advanced search mode you can choose "contains exact phrase" in lieu of quotation marks.
AND, OR, NOT (always in capital letters)
Using AND will yield results with the words in the strings without any consideration as to their order:
Here DaTA will yield results that have both combinations: "United Nations" and "Nations United."
Using OR will yield results with either word, for example, United OR Nations, will return results with either "United" or "Nations" separately, but not together.
Using NOT will exclude words, for example: Soviet Union NOT USSR, will return results only with "Soviet Union" and omit any that have the word "USSR."
Combination of Operators
You may use any combination of the above operators:
Here DaTA will yield results with the exact phrase "Alice and Wonderland" (in that order of words and none other) in which appears the word "Women" as well, but not any word that starts with the letters "child" ("childhood", "children", etc.).
The search query yields the list of results with the general number of hits
and with specific item information:
-type of material;
-title of item and its short bibliographic information;
-indication whether the item is printed or online, and if it is available or checked out, or available for online reading.
Results can be refined and filtered using the column on the right-hand-side > see below
Scrolling down will show more results; the default is ten per page, this can be changed at the bottom of the screen:
Here you see three items out of 59,941 possible hits.
The items discuss Alice and Wonderland (not the book itself), both are books.
Two are available online as indicated by "Online Access", the other is printed as indicated by "Available" (which also means it is not checked out).
In addition, you see the short bibliographic information of each item: author/editor, year of publication, name of series.
More than One Version to an Item
If there is one than one version, either different issues from different years, or printed and online versions, for example, you may see the following result:
Click See all versions > to reach each of the results separately like in the example above.
An Article or a Book Chapter
In this case, you will see:
-further bibliographic information;
-whether the article is in a peer-reviewed journal and other information about its type of publication;
-sometimes, a preview of a search result from within the text of the article itself;
-various access options > see below
This is an article about the Alice Syndrome.
The bibliographic information of the journal in which the article appears, Clinical Practice, is presented below the title and author.
The journal is peer-reviewed.
The article is published as an Open Access article (with no financial, legal, or technical barriers for accessing it).
It is a review article (presenting current state of research on the issue).
You see a quotation from the text of the article itself, where the text string searched, "Alice in Wonderland," appears, to give an indication whether the article is relevant to your needs.
The texts in green at the bottom show the various access options of the online version.
Availability Indications
The texts at the bottom of the item's information pane indicate its availability:
An item can be printed or online with full or limited access to it.
An online item is indicated by "Online Access" in green and in the case of an article, other options may apply, such as "Download PDF" or links such as "Read Article" or "Full-text available".
A physical item on the shelf is indicated by "Available" in green or "Checked out/Not available" in red > see below how to place a Hold Request for a checked-out item
"Check availability" Indication
For an article or a book chapter, you can also click on the title link to open the item's full details pane and scroll down to "Get it" or "View online."
An online item
If the item is online, you will see the various Databases through which to access the item: