Libraries Australia Search Service

Libraries Australia is a large database of records for more than 40 million items held in over 800 Australian libraries. It also provides access to more than one million digital images from Picture Australia.

There are two versions of the Libraries Australia Search Service:

Both free and subscription services can be accessed at the following Web Address: http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au

Both services provide ways in which you can get an item; from your own or other libraries, or from commercial suppliers or booksellers.

There are also other ways of searching Libraries Australia.


Libraries Australia Free Service

This service is freely available to anyone, anywhere. It has a simple search interface which provides a gateway to resources in Australian Library Collections, and the digital collections represented in Picture Australia. Searchers can:

Searching the Free Service

Searching can be on any combination of words and number (including ISBN/ISSN). You can limit your search by type of material (journal, book, video etc).

It supports boolean operations (AND, OR, NOT) :

Records can be displayed in a summary of results, or a full view format .

You can can e-mail records to yourself or print them. You can view the searches that you have already conducted, and if need be, you can refine them.

Libraries Australia Subscription Service

Only registered users can access the Subscription Service.

In addition to the functionality offered in the free service, users of the Subscription Service can:


Searching the Subscription  Service

Searching can be on any combination of authors, titles, control numbers, subject headings and keywords in author, subject, title and notes fields. You can limit your search by many options including country, language, date of publication, number (including ISBN/ISSN), and type of material.

It supports boolean operations (AND, OR, NOT) using simple and nested logic, comparison operators (=, <, >), proximity operators (NEAR and WITH), character masking (*) and truncation (#).

Records can be displayed in MARC, brief or full.

You can save records to a file on your own PC or system; or if you wish, you can e-mail records to yourself or print them. You can view the searches that you have already conducted, and if need be, you can refine them or save them as Alerts.

Connect to Libraries Australia now

Searching can also be perfomed using Z39.50.

Search

The search box located in the middle of the Search page allows you to enter a single search query.  The functions of the search screen are similar to those on search engines such as Google and uses keyword searching.  You can use a single search term or  enter more than one word in the search box, and the system will combine the words using the Boolean operator AND.  In Search you can conduct a variety of queries including:

Indexes Searched

In database terms, an Index is a field you can search on.  When you enter a search term in Search all the following indexes are searched:

Advanced Search

Advanced Search allows you to conduct more complex searches than Search, as you are able to:

Command Search

In Command Search you can perform more complex and specific searches than in Search or Advanced Search.  All ANBD indexes are available when from the drop-down menus used in the Command Search screen.

Command Search requires the use of Common Command Language (CCL), as well as a familiarity with the codes used in the various database indexes.  The Guide me feature enables you to use Command Search if you are less familiar with CCL and index codes.

See Appendix 3 of the Libraries Australia Manual for details of codes.

Alerts

The alert service of Libraries Australia Search allows you to save your search query so that the search will be run automatically either weekly, monthly or every 3 months. Your alert search then looks for newly added records that match the search query and sends search results to you by email.

Alerts are limited to 100. Alerts can only be created for queries that search the following databases: Australian Library Collections and Libraries Australia Authorities.

Frequently asked questions about Alerts

Adding holdings

You can add holdings to the Australian National Bibliographic database (ANBD) on the Libraries Australia search service. If you have a username and password with this level of access you can connect now. If not, please contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk.

Frequently asked questions about Adding Holdings

Adding a New Record

The Libraries Australia web cataloguing form can be accessed from Libraries Australia Search. It allows libraries to create bibliographic records as well as add, edit and delete records in the Australian National Bibliographic Database. Web Cataloguing form supports input of Latin 1 characters only; diacritics and special characters cannot be input.

Libraries Australia customers with a cataloguing sign on can access the web cataloguing form. You can only add, edit and delete the holdings of your own library. If you would like to contribute bibliographic records to the Australian National Bibliographic Database using the web cataloguing form, please contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk and ask for a cataloguing sign on.

Libraries Australia cataloguing standards

Details of the Libraries Australia cataloguing standards are available here: http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/standards.html
The standard for descriptive cataloguing used in Libraries Australia is the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules (latest edition and revisions) and the Library of Congress Rule Interpretations. Please use these tools when determining the bibliographic content of the record.

For full descriptions of the data elements that are supported in the Web Cataloguing interface consult the MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data Standards.

Enhanced Requesting

Libraries Australia offers a number of improved options for getting items found as a result of searching the ANBD (Australian National Bibliographic Database). By selecting the 'Get this item?' button beside the record you have selected you are able to choose from several options to obtain items:

The additional Enhanced Requesting option in Libraries Australia allows you to obtain items from other libraries by requesting them as an inter-library loan or copy through the completion of a request form. A recent release of Libraries Australia now offers a choice of request forms. A slightly longer request form aimed at end users, as well as a shorter form, to be used by ILL staff.

Frequently asked questions about Enhanced Requesting

Personalisation

Currently many existing Libraries Australia User-ID's for Libraries Australia are 'shared accounts' which means that settings apply to everyone using that account. Libraries Australia now has the functionality to allow users to create their own personal account within the shared account.

This will enable individual users, whether end users or library staff, to:

You can choose to let individuals use these accounts in addition to:

How do I activate personalisation?

Libraries who wish to offer personalisation to allow their staff or patrons to create personal accounts should contact the Help Desk with the following information:

  1. A list of the Libraries Australia User-ID's that the library wants personal accounts to be created from
  2. Specify whether personal accounts should enable:
    • access pay per search databases (for example: APAIS)
    • create alerts
    • request interlibrary loans
    • access Libraries Australia via the library's internal authentication system or from any internet connected computer

Once an account has been setup to allow the creation of personal accounts, anyone logging into the 'shared account' will see an option to 'create a personal account.' Selecting this option will then enable the user to create their own account for immediate use. Any searching done by this user will appear in Libraries Australia usage reports against the new personal User-ID.

Examples of different individual accounts.

A University Library requests the following types of personal accounts:

A Public Library requests the following types of personal accounts:

A Special Library requests the following types of personal accounts:

Frequently asked questions about Personalisation

Ordering MARC records

You can order MARC records from the Australian National Bibliographic database (ANBD) on the Libraries Australia search service. You will need a username and password with this level of access.

There are three ways of obtaining the MARC records: