Guide to Using the Newberry's Online Catalog

Primo VE, the Newberry’s discovery tool, provides one-stop searching of the library’s physical book and archival collections, as well as digital resources, including:

• Books
• Manuscripts
• Maps
• Journals & newspapers
• Articles
• Digital Resources

Primo VE allows for easier and more intuitive searching, users can broaden their search results to include resources beyond the library’s catalog or sort and filter results using date, language, and format limits.

In Simple Search you’ll receive results that contain all of your search terms. These may match keywords in a title, author names, and subjects.

Use the Advanced Search, to limit your search to specific fields, material types, and publication dates.

Use the Filters to refine your results and limit to items only available online or physically at the library. You can also include or exclude dates, formats, authors, etc.

Enclosing your search in quotes (“”) will only return results with an exact match.

A Boolean search allows you to combine keywords with AND, OR, NOT.

To request viewing of items in the Newberry reading rooms, log into or create your Newberry reader's account.

Library Catalog Search

Library Catalog Search is the primary search tool in Primo VE and allows for both simple and advanced searching of the library catalog and e-resources. Library Catalog Search is set up to search only the Newberry’s local catalog by default. To change the parameters of your search, click the magnifying glass icon and select one of the following options from the drop-down menu. If using Advanced Search, these options will appear at the top of the search field.

• Newberry Library Catalog: Searches the Newberry Library’s catalog for print and manuscript material held in the collection. Catalog records for most modern manuscript collections will link to a detailed finding aid.
• Library Catalog & E-Resources: Includes results from the Newberry’s catalog in addition to results from online journals and newspaper collections.
• Articles (E-Resources): Searches online journal and newspaper databases.
• All I-Share Libraries: Searches I-Share, the catalog for the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). Users must have a separate I-Share account through a participating member library. A complete list of CARLI member institutions is available here.
• EBSCO API Databases: Searches databases available through EBSCO. A list of the Newberry’s databases can be found here, resources offered by EBSCO are noted.

Modern Manuscripts Search

Although most manuscript collections will have a catalog record in Primo VE, this option will take you to the Newberry’s Modern Manuscript catalog where you can search or browse all Modern Manuscript Collection abstracts. Abstracts for each collection include links to more extensive collection finding aids: detailed online inventories, usually describing collection content to the folder-level.

Journal Search

Journal Search lets users search by title or ISSN for journals and newspapers. Results will include records for both print copies held by the library and journals that are available online. Users also have the option to browse journals by category.

This link will take you to the Newberry’s Digital Collections portal where you can explore the Newberry through digital collections, scholarly publications and research tools, interactive resources, tools designed for education, and online exhibitions.

Database search lets users search by name for databases offered at the Newberry. Currently, access to databases is IP-based and only available on-site to registered users. View our list of databases available in the Newberry Library.

Browse searches that use the author, title, or subject heading as search terms will return a list of related records. A search for call numbers lists the catalog records in call number order. Note that separate options are available to browse for items in the Library of Congress (LC) classification system, and other classifications; not all Newberry items are classified in the LC system.

Our librarians are here to help you get the most out of your research.

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