Online Searching Strategies for Special Collections Materials

Limiting your search to Special Collections items

Search strategies for specific collections within Special Collections (i.e. Book Arts or Comic Books)

Limiting your search to Special Collections items

Looking for something in Special Collections? You may find it by simply searching PantherCat without using any limits, but if you are looking for something specifically in Special Collections, such as something in our Book Arts Collection or Comic Books Collection, you may want to use a search limit.

Please note that when using the Basic Ssearch screen, it is not possible to limit an Author/Editor/Composer, Subject Heading (exact), Author-Sorted by Title, Call Number, or Course Reserve search.

Limits can be applied to all other searches in the Basic and Advanced Search screens. Limits will remain in effect until the Clear Limits button is selected or the search session has ended.There are several different ways to limit searches, depending on what you are looking for.

Method 1: Quick Limit Menu

If you are simply looking to limit your search to Special Collections materials, use the Quick Limit menu, on the Basic Search screen.

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Method 2: Set Limits Button

If you want to narrow your search by specific criteria not available as Quick Limit, such as searching within the Book Arts or Comic Book Collection, use the Set Limits button, located at the lower right hand corner of the Basic Search box.

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Method 3: Limit Options

Limit options (using the Set Limits button) include...

Date
Select the equal sign (=) to limit the search to all items published in a single year. Select the greater than (>) or less than (<) signs to limit the search to items published either after or before a specific year. To limit by an inclusive range of years, enter the earliest year in the Year box and the latest year in the Range box (example: Year: 1998, Range: 2000)

Language
Select a language(s) from the drop-down menu.

Item Type
Select an Item Type(s) from the drop-down menu. Exmaples include: books, serial publichations, archive/manuscripts, or computer files.

Location
Select a library location from the drop-down menu. All of the Special Collections locations are included in this menu, so if you want to search specifically in the Book Arts Collection, for example, you would want to select that location.

Publication Status
Select the appropriate status (for serials).

When you have selected all of the search criteria, click on the Apply Limits button at the top or bottom of the screen. Limits will remain in effect until the Clear Limits button is selected or the search has ended.

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Search strategies for specific collections within Special Collections (i.e. Book Arts or Comic Books)

Special Collections has divided up its holdings into a variety of specific "collections," which are designated in PantherCat and are searchable (see Set Limits searching above).

Searchable collections in PantherCat include:

Also, the following Special Collections collection areas have their own pages with guided search information:

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