Our Library Catalog can be used to see if we have a specific book, series, or author you are searching for. It offers different search options, including searching by Title, Series, or 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
1. Go to the library catalog.
2. Click on All, located at the end of the Search bar and using the drop-down menu, select Title.
3. Type the title of the book you're looking for in the Search bar and then click enter to view the results.
Picture 1:
For a specific title, like "The Personal Librarian", there will only be one result when you search by Title.
Picture 2:
For books that share the same title or includes that word in other titles, you will end up with far more results. You may have to 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" and has 1146 results. The results may include titles like "Shadow" but also ones like, "Shadow Man" and "Shadow Creek" etc.
Picture 3:
If there are 0 results, 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. For the example below, the correct title is "A Man called Ove" not "A Man named Ove."
Search by Series
1. Go to the library catalog.
2. Click on All, located at the end of the Search bar and using the drop-down menu, select Series.
3. Type the name of the series you're looking for in the Search bar and then click enter to view the results.
4. After searching "hunger games," there are 4 results found. Since this is a series, it will say what number the book is in the series above the formats.
If you click on the title of an item, it will re-direct you and provide more information. This includes a brief description of the title and a new feature More in this Series that will showcase the other books in the series. You are able to select any of those titles to view more information and place a request if interested.
Search by Author
1. Go to the library catalog.
2. Click on All, located at the end of the Search bar and using the drop-down menu, select Author.
3. 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.
In the picture below, I was looking for an author named Freida McFadden, but to search for that author, I had to type it as McFadden, Freida. The comma in between the last and first name is optional, but the last name must go first.
I can't find the book I'm 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.