Records You Can Search For
When you search your library’s catalog, you can search for these main types of records:
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Bibliographic (bib) records. Each title in your library catalog has a unique bib record that contains title, author, and publishing information. Libraries can purchase standardized (MARC) records or they can create their own. (For more information, see the “Bibliographic Records” chapter of the Cataloging Guide.) |
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Authority records. An authority is a standard form of a search term. (For example, your library uses a standard form of an author’s name, a subject heading, or a series title.) Authority records are important for maintaining accuracy and consistency in the library catalog. (For more information, see the “Authority Records” chapter of the Cataloging Guide.) |
You can also search your library’s database for other types of records, depending on the Horizon products that your library uses, and whether your system administrator allows you to have access to the records. For example, you may be able to search your library database for these types of records:
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Borrower records. Each borrower who checks out items from your library has a unique borrower record. This record lets you keep track of your borrowers’ contact information, the items they have checked out, fines due, and so forth. (For more information, see the “Borrower and Item Records” chapter of the Circulation Guide.) |
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Purchase orders. A purchase order lets you keep track of items your library has ordered or received from a vendor. (For more information, see the “Purchase Orders” chapter of the Acquisitions Guide.) |
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Course and instructor records. If your library maintains a reserve book room, these records let you keep track of instructors and the courses they teach so you can more easily keep items for the instructors on reserve. (For more information, see “Reserve Bookroom Basics” in the Reserve Bookroom Guide.) |
This chapter focuses on searching your library’s catalog for bib or authority records. However, the basic searching tasks explained in this chapter can also apply to other types of searching you do in Horizon.
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