Browse provides a single search box for finding words and phrases in titles, authors/narrators, subjects, LC and Dewey call numbers, and NLS book numbers and arranging the results in an ordered alphabetic or numeric list.
The Browse shortcut URL is: https://nlscatalog.loc.gov/browse
Browse Options
Browse offers the following types of searches:
- Searches against controlled lists of authors/narrators, subjects, and names/titles used by NLS - along with cross-references. These controlled terms are referred to as "authorized headings." The NLS Catalog supports two types of headings searches: you can either start with the left-most word of the heading (the beginning with option) or look for any word in the heading (the containing option).
- Searches for all titles or the main title, starting with the left-most word of the title (removing initial articles).
- Searches for NLS Subjects beginning with, starting with the left-most term in the NLS subject code.
- Searches for Dewey Call Numbers, NLS Book Numbers, and LC Call Numbers, starting at the beginning of the number.
To enter a Browse search:
- Select a Browse search type from the drop-down menu options.
- Enter one or more search words or phrases in the Browse search box. Depending on the Browse option you select, your search terms may need to be entered in exact order, beginning with the left-most word.
- If you select Titles beginning with, Title (main) beginning with, Dewey Call Numbers, NLS Subjects beginning with, NLS Book Numbers, or LC Call Numbers from the Browse options, Add Limits appears on the search form, enabling you to optionally limit your results.
- Context-sensitive help is available from either the menu at the top right of your screen or the Search/Browse Help link at the bottom of your screen. .
Searching controlled headings for authors/narrators, subjects, and names/titles - either using the beginning with or containing option - produces a Headings Browse List, where individual headings point to one or more titles. Search results are returned in alphabetical or numerical order, depending on the Browse option you select. You are placed closest in the Browse List to the search word(s) you entered; you can then page forward or backward through the list using navigational arrows. Searching aids such as cross-references and scope notes define relationships among headings. Selecting a Browse List heading takes you to the Titles List for that term.
Search results for Titles beginning with, Title (main) beginning with, Dewey Call Numbers, NLS Subjects beginning with, NLS Book Numbers, and LC Call Numbers generate Titles List displays, which are arranged by author, title, and date.
Punctuation, Diacritics, Special Characters, Non-Latin Characters
Most marks of punctuation in your search query are converted to spaces. Most diacritics and some punctuation marks are removed (including apostrophes, alifs, ayns, middle dots, primes and double primes). A few special characters, however, are retained in searches: ampersands (&), plus signs (+), at signs (@), number signs (#), and musical flat (♭) and natural (♮) signs (musical sharps are converted to spaces). Special characters are generally converted to their nearest alphabetic equivalent (for example: an æ diagraph to ae or a þ thorn to th).
Records in the NLS Catalog use Unicode opens in a new window (UTF-8 encoding) for searching and displaying data. In addition to Latin scripts, catalog records may also contain the following languages/scripts: Chinese, Japanese, Korean; Cyrillic-based scripts; Greek; Hebrew, Yiddish; and Perso-Arabic script (e.g., Arabic, Persian, Pushto, Sindhi, Urdu). For more information, see Searching/Displaying Non-Latin Characters.
In general, your preferred web browser settings will not need to be changed to correctly view records that contain diacritics, special characters, or non-Latin characters. If you have problems, however, you may need to reconfigure your browser opens in a new window. Best results occur if you have Unicode fonts and use Unicode character encoding with automatic character encoding activated.
Limits are available for the following Browse search types: Titles beginning with, Title (main) beginning with, Dewey Call Numbers, NLS Subjects beginning with, NLS Book Numbers, or LC Call Numbers. To filter these searches, toggle open Add Limits and select:
- Year Published/Created of the material
- Language of the material
- Type of material (e.g., book, talking book, magazine, music score, music talking book, map)
- Format (e.g., braille, large print, electronic)
Note that limits are not available for Headings Browse Lists of authors/narrators, subjects, and names/titles since browsing these headings allow you to continuously page from the first to last heading or cross-reference in the catalog.
Searches in the NLS Catalog can return thousands of results. Search limits can be useful to refine your results, but should be used with caution. Older catalog records may not contain the data that is used to set limits, and so these records will not appear in search results. Similarly, some formats of material (such as maps) may not contain data such as language information; limiting by language will exclude these records from your results. In addition, when multiple values (e.g., several languages) are recorded in a single field of a catalog record, limits can only retrieve the first language. If relevant material is not retrieved with limits set, clear the limits and modify your search.
Browse Tips
- The Library of Congress Controlled Vocabularies website describes the vocabularies and thesauri used in NLS Catalog records. One of the Library's most common controlled vocabularies is the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). In addition to providing cross-references, scope notes identify LC classification numbers associated subject headings and clarify how particular headings have been used in the NLS Catalog.
- In most Browse searches, punctuation (e.g. semicolons, periods, hyphens, slashes, etc.) found at the end of words or phrases is ignored. Your search queries, however, should:
- Retain punctuation found in the middle of words and numbers (for example: children's or 4-H clubs)
- Transcribe periods, parentheses, spaces, and slashes when searching Dewey Call Numbers, NLS Subjects beginning with, NLS Book Numbers, and LC Call Numbers.
- Enter words in the order described in each browse option. Results will match all words entered and either be returned as a Headings Browse List or as a Titles List.
- For searches using the beginning with option, as well as searches for Titles beginning with, and Title (main) beginning with, Dewey Call Numbers, NLS Subjects beginning with, NLS Book Numbers, and LC Call Numbers, truncation is automatic.
- For searches using the contains option, truncation is not automatic. Instead:
- Use quotation marks (" ") to identify words you want searched as a phrase (for example: "solar energy")
- Use a percent sign (%) as a single character wildcard, either inside or at the end of a search term (for example: m?re retrieves more, mare, and mere, but not moore).
- Use a question mark (?) as a multiple character wildcard, either inside or at the end of a search term (for example: canoe? will retrieve canoe, canoeing, canoeist, canoes, etc.; inter?l will search for internal and international).
- Remove initial articles. If your search query starts with one of the following common initial articles, you will be presented with a dialog box asking if you want to remove the word from your search:
- a
- a'
- al
- al-
- am
- an
- an t-
- ane
- ang
- ang mga
- as
- az
- bat
- bir
- d'
- da
- das
- de
- dei
- dem
- den
- der
- des
- det
- di
- die
- dos
- e
- 'e
- een
- eene
- egy
- ei
- ein
- eine
- einem
- einen
- einer
- eines
- eit
- el
- el-
- els
- en
- enne
- et
- ett
- eyn
- eyne
- gl'
- gli
- ha-
- hai
- he
- he-
- heis
- hen
- hena
- henas
- het
- hin
- hina
- hinar
- hinir
- hinna
- hinni
- hins
- hinu
- hinum
- ho
- hoi
- i
- ih'
- il
- il-
- in
- it
- ka
- ke
- l'
- l-
- la
- las
- le
- les
- lh
- lhi
- li
- lis
- lo
- los
- lou
- lu
- mga
- mia
- 'n
- na
- ny
- 'o
- o
- os
- 'r
- 's
- 't
- ta
- tais
- tas
- the
- to
- tois
- ton
- tou
- um
- uma
- un
- un'
- una
- une
- unei
- unha
- uno
- uns
- unui
- us
- y
- ye
- yr
