Finding Books in the Library Catalog (catalogUSMAI)

The library catalog (catalogUSMAI) contains records for millions of books (as well as other materials) located in the libraries of the University of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions. UMUC students, faculty, and staff  can borrow books from any of these libraries. Here are some tips you can use for locating and retrieving books within the catalog.

Accessing catalogUSMAI

To access the library catalog, first go to the UMUC Library homepage, click on the Library Catalog tab, and then click on the Library Catalog link:

You will then be brought to the basic search page of the Library Catalog:

Searching by Book Title

To search for a book by its title, choose "title beginning with..." from the drop-down menu  and then type the title of the book  (omitting articles such as "a," "an," "the," etc.) within the search box:

You will then be brought to this page, listing all the records for this particular title:

Clicking on the link will bring you to this page of individual records for this title, detailing which universities own it, check-out availability, and publication information:

The  yellow Find It button can also be used to determine in which library a particular book is held. Clicking on Find It brings you to this page where you can click on the "Check for a print version" link to locate an available copy:

Searching by Author and Subject

In addition to title, you can find books by author and subject. Simply choose the corresponding fields in the drop-down menu and type the appropriate terms within the search box:

Here is an example of a possible subject search in the  catalog: