University of Southern Maine

A Quick Guide to Using URSUS

Materials | Logging On | Basic Searching(Author, Title, Keyword, Subject) | Other Features (Call Number Searching, Course Reserves, Viewing Your Own Account, Requestor Function) | Limiting Searches | Location Codes | Printing/Emailing/Saving Records | Getting Help

Materials You’ll Find

URSUS is a catalog of items owned by USM, University of Maine System Libraries, and other selected Maine libraries. Also known as the "online catalog", URSUS lists books and other government publications, but also includes other items such as music scores and records, maps, and periodical subscriptions. URSUS does NOT index articles within periodicals.

Logging On

To access URSUS, go to the USM Libraries Webpage: http://library.usm.maine.edu. Click on URSUS—UMS Online Catalog. Anyone can use URSUS; no username, password or ID is required.

Basic Searching

General Hints

• Options are listed on buttons/bars at top and bottom of page
• Click on Start Over to return to opening menu
• Punctuation and upper/lower case are ignored
• Scroll through a list of entries by clicking on Next Record or Previous Record

Tips for Author Searching

Enter the author’s name, last name first. This will retrieve a list of works written, edited, or composed by him or her. You may enter also the name of a corporation, conference or association.

Tips for Title Searching

Enter as much of the title as you know, in correct word order. If you’re unsure of the exact title or the word order, do a keyword search instead.

Tips for Keyword Searching

Keyword searches look for a word or phrase somewhere in a record (title, author, subject heading, etc.) Link individual terms with AND (both terms must be present), OR (either term must be present) or NOT (first term present, but not second). If your search mixes use of AND, OR, and NOT, use parentheses to group terms. This tells the computer the order in which it should perform your search. (For example, television AND violence AND (child OR teen) tells the computer that the word television, the word violence, and the word child or teen all must be present in retrieved results.) If no results are returned with an AND search, the system will default to an OR search.

Use an asterisk at the end of a wordto look for variants. For example, television AND violence AND child* would retrieve records that include the words child, children, childlike, etc. as well as television and violence.

Tips for Subject Searching

Subject searching uses a preset vocabulary. You must type in the official words or phrases ("subject headings") used consistently by the Library of Congress to describe the person, place, item, geographic area, or topic in which you are interested. URSUS requires an exact match between term(s) entered and the official heading (i.e. official phrase is Motion Pictures, not Movies). If there is no exact match for what you typed in, URSUS will show you the subject headings that are closest alphabetically to what you typed.

Other Features

Call Number Searching

Three types of call number searches are available: Library of Congress (books), Dewey/Other (includes state government documents), and US Doc/Report# (federal government documents). When entering a Library of Congress call number, spacing does not matter. In Dewey/Other and US Doc/Report# searching, however, you must be sure to place punctuation exactly as shown in the examples on screen.

Course Reserves

Reserve materials are books, articles, or other materials that a professor has made available at the circulation desk for his or her class. Some may be available electronically through the Library webpage. To check to see if an item is on reserve and to check for availability and format, click on a choice under Course Reserves and follow the resulting instructions.

Viewing Your Own Account

The Viewing Your Own Account feature provides a list of items you have currently checked out, and allows you to renew items and to see any outstanding fines. To see your record, click View Own Record, enter your name and barcode number, and follow screen directions.

Requestor Function

It is possible to request items through URSUS from participating libraries and to have them sent to your home library. To request an item, click on the Request button and follow screen directions. You must have a Library card in order to use this function.

Limiting Searches

URSUS makes it possible to limit search results in many ways:

• To limit your search to titles of magazines, journals, and newspapers only, click on Journal/Magazine/Newspaper in URSUS’ opening screen.
• To immediately limit to a particular library and its collections before you begin your search, click on Search Individual URSUS Collections in URSUS’ opening screen.
• To narrow a list of search results to items in a particular library, choose that library from the drop-down menu box next to the Search button and click on Search.
• To limit results by language, by material type, or by other criteria, select the appropriate options in the advanced keyword search screen.

Location Codes

Each item in URSUS is labeled with the abbreviated code for each library that owns it. Below is a list of the codes for each library:

Printing/Emailing/Saving Records

Print individual records by clicking on the browser’s Print button. To work with lists of items, checkmark items of interest and click on Save Marked Records, then click on Export Saved List. Then click on the appropriate circle: Email to email, Screen to print, and Local Disk to save to a diskette.

Getting Help

For more detailed instructions on the use of URSUS, read each search screen carefully for examples and searching hints. Reference Librarians will also be pleased to assist you in the use of the databases; please stop by or call the Reference Desk (x780-4272 Portland, x780-5344 Gorham, 753-6540 Lewiston-Auburn) for assistance.

Last Update: 01.2004
Comments: Ask-A-Librarian