Call up the catalog plus and enter known words from the book title or the author's name.
The author's surname and one or two meaningful words from the book title are usually sufficient.

Example: You are looking for the book "Eine musikalische Geschichte der Menschheit" by Michael Spitzer. Munich, Riva 2021.

You do not need to pay attention to upper and lower case.

Umlauts are also found in expanded form and as a basic vowel.

Information about the loan status of the book is already displayed in the hit list:
 

	means that the book is on location and can be used or borrowed from the library. Books that are in a semester reserve are also considered available, as they can be used in the library.
	means that the book is on loan. It can be reserved by you, unless it is in the work folder of a member of university staff.
	means that the book is not available for use at the moment. Please contact one of the circulation desks.

eBooks do not have an information button next to the title.
 

Clicking on the title will take you to the full display, where you can see further information about the location and signature of the book. If it is on loan, you may also be able to reserve it.

If you already know the shelfmark of a book, e.g. from a reference list, but do not know where to find it in the library, use the search field "shelfmark/classmark" from the advanced search ("More search fields").

Clicking on the title will take you to the full display where you can see more information about the location and shelfmark/call number of the book. If it is on loan, you may also be able to reserve it.
 

If you are looking for a specific magazine or newspaper and want to know whether a particular year is available, you can proceed as follows:

Enter one or more words from the magazine or newspaper title in the search slot.

• You do not need to pay attention to upper and lower case.
• Only enter meaningful words from the title and leave out articles, prepositions or similar
• Umlauts are also found in expanded form

Example search: "Journal of modern European history"

Via the "Catalog" tab, you will receive the hits from the holdings of Siegen University Library. If the number of hits is too high, use a suitable filter, e.g. literature type: "Journals" in the right-hand column of the screen. 
 

From the significantly smaller number of hits, you can see whether it is a printed or electronic edition and select the required title.
 

If you are looking for an essay or a chapter from a book, you can only search in the "Catalogue" section using the book title and/or author or, if known, the ISBN. (see also Tips for searching for books).

Example search:

Hirschheim, Rudy A.: Big Data, Little Understanding, In: Cambridge Handbook of Qualitative Digital Research 2023

Here you only know the book title with which you can search: Cambridge Handbook of Qualitative Digital Research

Alternatively, you can search with the author and the title of the chapter in the "Articles and more" section. This is also useful if you are unsure whether you know the correct title of the book.

The hits you get here may contain a link to the full text, but shelfmarks are never displayed here.
You should therefore use the link"How do I get to it" (in the short title list or the full display).
In the following overview you will see links to an online edition as well as the availability of a printed edition in the University Library of Siegen.
If neither is available, you can also start an interlibrary loan request directly here.

If you are looking for an article that has appeared in a journal, you can only search in the "Catalogue" section using the journal title or, if known, the ISSN. (see also Tips for searching journals).

Example search:
Jan Boelmann, Lisa König: 'Once upon a time there was a new world...' Fairy tale narratives in virtual realities" In: Information on German Didactics, Vol. 44 (2020), Issue 3, pp. 65-76

It is better to find the journal title "Informationen zur Deutschdidaktik" via the function "more search fields" > "complete title", as the two search terms "Informationen" "Deutschdidaktik" are expected to produce a large number of hits. 
In addition, you should optimize the number of hits with the search filter literature type: "Journal".
 

You can then select the correct title from the list of hits to find out the shelfmark or receive a link to an online edition.
 

Alternatively, you can search using the author and the title of the article in the "Articles and more" section. This is also useful if you are unsure whether you know the correct title of the journal.
 

The hits you get here may contain a link to the full text, but shelfmarks are never displayed here.

You should therefore use the link "How do I get to it" (in the short title list or the full display)
 

In the following overview you will see links to an online edition as well as the shelfmark of a printed edition in the University Library of Siegen.
If neither is available, you can also start an interlibrary loan request directly here.
 

The menu item "Courses" in the catalog plus offers a list of the semester apparatus of the University of Siegen with their media.
In the search field you can enter terms from the title of the semester apparatus or names of lecturers.
 

Various filters are available on the right-hand side of the screen for further filtering.

You will not find scans of essays here, they are still only available via Moodle but if they are from our collection, the shelfmark of the book/journal or the link to the e-resource is noted.

AND combination

If several search terms are entered in one field, an AND operation is automatically performed 
Example: Entering medienerziehung medienpädagogik returns hits containing both search terms. These do not both have to appear in the title or subtitle, but they must appear in the title entry. 
 

OR combination

Link the search terms with OR if you want to extend the search to increase the number of hits. 
The character for linking with OR in the catalog plus is | (the character is located on the keyboard on the >< key). 
Example: Entering medienerziehung | medienpädagogik will return hits containing either medienerziehung or medienpädagogik or both words. 
 

NOT combination

Link the search terms with NOT if you want to restrict the search, e.g. to exclude a very specific search term from the search.
The character for linking with NOT in the catalog plus is - (whereby this is placed before the second search word without a space). 
Example: Entering medienerziehung -medienpädagogik will return hits whose titles contain the term medienerziehung but not the term medienpädagogik.

There are search terms that generate a very large number of hits.

These hit lists can be improved with the help of various filter options (bar on the right of the screen or "Show filter" button). Here are some examples:

• a specific publication period can be specified using the slider
• in the hit list of the library catalog ("Catalog" tab), you can filter between local holdings or online resources
• specific document types can be selected using "Literature type" or "Type of source"
• the number of hits can be further restricted thematically with the help of "Keyword", "Subject" or "Topic"
• only newly acquired or licensed titles can be displayed (new acquisitions)
• the number of hits under "Articles and more" can be optimized for specific content providers (specific databases or associations).

In any case, test the bar with the filter options on the right-hand side of the screen to optimize the hit list if you have a large number of hits.

Active search filters are displayed at the top of the sidebar or above the hit list.

A filter can be deleted again by clicking on the red X

.