When using the McGill Libraries, it can be useful to know what the various terms on the website mean in order to become more efficient in your work. However, terms such as “Catalogue” and “Catalogue Record” may come up – but what exactly do these words mean?

What is the library Catalogue?

The library catalogue is the collection of all the materials available through the McGill Libraries, whether it be books, articles, movies, or any other resources. For a better searching experience, the Sofia Discovery Tool allows you to browse the library catalogue for materials in our collection, as well as materials in other libraries worldwide.

What is a Catalogue Record?

Now that we have a better grasp on what the catalogue is, it’s time to turn to catalogue records. When you search something in the catalogue, all the results that come up are individual (catalogue) records.

To see more information on a particular record, simply click on it. This will show you all of the metadata within that catalogue record, such as the author, date of publication, and ISBN number. Each search result is its own individual catalogue record, with information on the selected record stored within it!

If you have any questions about how to use the library or more, contact hssl.library@mcgill.ca