Librarian
Requesting Books from St. Olaf
You will likely come across books that are only at St. Olaf. You can either request these be sent to Carleton, or go to St. Olaf and check the book out or use it there.
To request the book from St. Olaf:
- In Catalyst, look at the record for the book, click the "Request" link that appears part way down the page after you log in.
- Log in with your Carleton username and password.
- The book should be here the next business day. You can return the book to the Carleton library, and it will find its way back to St. Olaf.
Requesting Books through InterLibrary Loan
If you need a book that is not at Carleton or St. Olaf, you can request it through InterLibrary Loan. These requests take longer to fill, so give yourself plenty of time to request them.
The easiest way to submit a request is to search WorldCat, an online catalog for libraries throughout the world, to find books that Carleton and St. Olaf don't have. Once you find the book you're looking for, click the "Request via ILLiad" link. This will pre-fill the ILL form with the information we need to fill your request.
Search Catalyst using the box above
Catalyst is the joint library catalog for Carleton and St. Olaf. You can use Catalyst to find books, dvds, journals, images, and more. Catalyst can also search across most of our library databases to find articles.
Search tips for finding books
Use the Books + Media search to get the best results. Start with a keyword search on your topic, which will search for your words in the title, table of contents (if available), subject headings, and author names. If you get too many results, take a look at the choices along the left side of the page to narrow your search.
If you've found a book that looks great for your topic, look at the record for that book to help you find other relevant books:
- Subject headings - these are listed in the center of the page, and are the Library of Congress Subject Headings for the book. If one of those headings really captures your topic, click on it to find all the other books with that subject heading.
- Browsing the shelves - the books in the library are shelved in call number order, so books on a similar topic are shelved together. It's worth your time to look at the books shelved near books that you've found. You can also use Catalyst to virtually browse the shelves: click on a record for a print book title (ebooks are not included in this feature) and scroll down to Virtual Browse to see books that would be shelved nearby.
[visual description: screen shot showing book titles in the Catalyst virtual browse]
Finding Books on the Shelves
When you've found the book you're interested in, you need to note three things from the Catalyst catalog:
- the location
- the call number
- the status
[visual description: screen shot of Catalyst book record showing the item location, call number, and status]
- location tells you which library the book is in, and which part of the library it's in. Most books at Carleton are in the Books section, which is on the bottom three floors.
- call number tells you where on the shelves the book will be. Click "Library Map" for more help
- status tells you if the book is available or not. If it's not available, it will tell you when the book is due. You can request the book, and the person who has it checked out will need to return it within a week. You'll be notified when the book has been returned.
For information on how our library is laid out and what is on each floor, take a look at our online library tour.
