Faculty of Classics - University of Cambridge

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Searching the Catalogue

Where to Start?

The catalogue for Cambridge Libraries is called Newton and there is a link to it on the right hand side of each page of the Classics website. Due to the number of libraries in Cambridge, there is a number of catalogues, each holding information on a specific set of libraries or library collections.

Libraries are listed alphabetically by department or faculty, and by college name. 

You need to choose Departments and Faculties A-E to search for books in the Classical Faculty Library.

The University Library has a separate catalogue. Tip: Hover over a question mark to see which libraries are included in any of the catalogues. The Universal Catalogue lets you search all  catalogues together. It is still under development and is not always available.

Basic Search

To limit your search to just the Classical Faculty Library click on the “Limit To” box and select “Classical Faculty Library”

 

 

• If you’re searching for a specific phrase in the Keyword search, put it in quotation marks: “greek tragedy”
• If you’re looking for items by using the Author search, put the surname first:  easterling P 
• Type the first words of a Title or Journal Title search, but don’t include initial articles – e.g. poet's voice
  
• 

Journals 

Enter the first words of the journal title exactly (but leave out initial articles such as ‘The’) and select Journal Title from the drop-down menu on the Basic Search page.

Click on the journal title to see the full record, and scroll down to find the holding details for the Library. The University Library catalogue has records for electronic journals too: click on the Links field to access the electronic version.

Or you can choose the "Title Search" option in the right-hand menu which will show the journal title.

Tip: it’s important to remember that only the journal title appears in Newton, not the details of individual articles in each issue of the journal.

 

Advanced Search

Using Advanced Search you can choose where Newton will look for your keywords within a record. You can select specific fields to search (such as ‘Author’, ‘Title’, or ‘Subject’). You can also combine your search terms in a variety of ways. This makes Advanced Search a very powerful and precise way of searching the catalogue.

 

Tip: Advanced Search is an excellent way to find material on a particular topic or theme, when you don’t have specific titles to look for.

 

 

Results 

Your search results are listed with the title and author listed first, followed by classmark, library location and status. If the entry "Multiple holdings available" appears, then more than one classmark is associated with the title: click on the title for more details.

 

The status indicates whether the book is on loan. If "no data item available"  is shown then the book has no barcode (i.e. it is missing or not borrowable, for example a journal).

 

Too Many Results?

 

 When your search finds more than one hit, Newton offers you ways to filter your results. You can also choose to add limits before you search. Either will narrow your search down and give you fewer, better targeted, results.

Filtering your search result:

You can choose to filter your results by selecting one of the options in the right-hand menu on the results display. For instance, you may wish to see only recent results (select ‘Add filter: 2000 and after’), or only journal material (select ‘Add filter: Journals’).

Adding limits before you search:

Before you perform a Basic Search, click the drop-down Limit To menu and choose an option, for example: recently published items, journals or electronic material. There are more options available under Advanced Search, including date range, place of publication and language.

For more help, see the University Library's page on Catalogue Guides, the Newton Catalogue Help page or ask at the Issue Desk.