Our online catalog can be used to see if we have a specific book or author. It offers different search options, including Title and Author. To access our catalog, please click here. For more information on how to search by title or author please see the steps below.
Search by Title
- Click here to go to our online catalog.
- Click on the box to the left of the search box where it says "Keyword" and select Title from the drop down menu. Type the title of the book you're looking for in the box, and then click Submit to search for it. (Keyword is the default search option, which you can use to search for a title. However, the most accurate way to search for a specific book is to use the Title option, especially if the title is really short.)
- Your results will look like one of these three pictures:
Picture One:
This means there was one exact match for the title you searched for.
Picture Two:
This means there are several books that match your search, which typically happens with short titles. Scroll through and select the one that looks like the book you're looking for. In this case, if the book I'm looking for is just called "Shadow," then I would click on the first one, which is going to show me results for items with "Shadow" somewhere in the title or item information (in this instance, if we know the author it might be better or faster to search by author, unless it's an author that has published a lot of books, such as James Patterson). Remember, you can always click on the back arrow and come back to these results if you don't find the right one.
Picture Three:
This means there might not be a copy of the book in our system. Double check that everything is spelled correctly, and then if it's a longer title, try shortening it a little bit. If you're still not finding the book, try searching by the author, and if it still doesn't come up, then there's probably not a copy in our system. For information on how you might be able to still get a copy of the item, please see below.
Search by Author
- Click here to go to our online catalog.
- Click on the box to the left of the search box where it says "Keyword" and select Author from the drop down menu. Type the name of the author you're looking for in the box, using the Last Name, First Name format as shown in the picture. Here I was looking for an author named Alexis Hall, but to search for them I had to type it as Hall, Alexis. (The comma in between the last and first name is optional, but the last name must go first.) Click Submit.
3. Your search results should match one of these pictures:
Picture One
Most of the time when you search by author, your results will look like these. This is often because there are several authors with the same name but different middle initials (as is this case) and the initials were included when the book was cataloged to differentiate between the different authors. If you know the author's middle name or initial, then click on that one. If you don't, try clicking on one of the results and see if that's the right author. You can always use the back arrow to come back to these results if you need to.
Picture Two
Alternatively, there could be multiple entries for the same author if the author's name was entered differently in the system for different books, such as in this picture. In this instance, some of the books were cataloged with J. R. R. Tolkien as the author (this is usually the name this author is known as), and others with John Ronald Reuel Tolkien as the author (his full name). They're the same author; it's just one of the catalogers used his initials with the books they cataloged and the other typed out his full name. Click on one of the entries to see the books cataloged under that name, and then you can use the back arrow to come back to these results and look at the books under the other version of his name if you choose to.
Picture Three
For the search results in this picture, there was only one author matching the name I entered (McQuiston, Casey), and so it took me straight to the results for that author.
Picture Four
This means there weren't any results for the author I was looking for (Reyne, Layla). Double check that you've spelled the author's name correctly, and if so, try just searching for their last name and first initial, and then last name only. If you still can't find the correct author, then we might not have any of their books.
If We Don't Have the Book You're Looking For
If we don't own a book you're looking for, there are two possible ways we might be able to get it. If you have a Sarasota Library card, you can request to borrow the book from another Florida library through our Interlibrary Loan service. For more information on Interlibrary Loan, including how to place a request, please click here. The other option is to place a request asking us to consider purchasing the book, which can be submitted by anyone. For more information on how to make a purchase request, please click here. For both options, it is best to give us as much information about the book you're looking for that you can so that we are sure we're considering the correct item. While we do at least need the title of the book, including the author, ISBN, publisher, publication year, or even a link to the book on the publisher's website or a seller like Amazon is very helpful.