Library Catalogs
A library catalog is the complete inventory of the information resources held in a library collection.
Library catalogs list books, e-books, videos, e-resources, periodical subscriptions (but not the articles contained in periodicals), government documents, maps, and more.
- Murphy Library CatalogThe catalog of the collections of UWL's Murphy Library, with around 1 million items listed. Many items are accessed online, while others are available in the library building (and can usually be borrowed from the library). All items were selected with UWL students/faculty/staff in mind!
- Murphy Library Catalog with UW System Resource Sharing ListingsOver 9 million unique items and over 17 million volumes listed. UWL students/faculty/staff can request to borrow items to pick up at Murphy Library within 2-4 days. This service is called "UW System Resource Sharing".
- WorldCat (OCLC) This link opens in a new windowA union catalog of the holdings of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide (including UW-Madison but NOT including UWL or other UW libraries), with listings for more than 670 million books and other items. Books and other materials identified in WorldCat can be requested using Interlibrary Loan.
Find the Original Documents
When analyzing a primary source document, you may want to locate it in its original context. Where did it come from?
Does your source cite its source?
If it came from a book, check the Murphy Library Catalog by title is usually a pretty easy way to see if we have the book.
If Murphy Library doesn't have the book, perhaps it is held elsewhere in the UW System. You can use Search@UW to search for books held in libraries across the UW System (including UW-Madison, a very large research library).
Once you have the cited book in hand, have you found the original source? Or, have you found a book that contains a reprint of the original? Have you found a translation of the original? Might other translations of the same original document exist?
You can also try shortcutting the process. Your primary source may be available in a "collected work" available through Murphy Library. You can try a catalog search for the writer's name combined with a term like "sources" or "letters" or "works" or "correspondence". Example: strozzi letters
Explore the Murphy Library Catalog
You can remove the "books" limiter to see other types of materials such as scores and streaming videos.
You can refine and narrow the results list in several additional ways, including
- add additional search terms. For primary sources try terms like "sources" "letters" "correspondence"
- topical search terms like: food, women, marriage
- use the limiting facet options down the left part of the page