A Record in the Catalog

A record, or "hit," shows information about an item (a book, video, audiotape, etc.). A record includes information such as the:

An example of a record for an item in the Northern Virginia Community College WebPAC appears below. This is a bibliographic record for the video of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Notice each field of information:

The title of the item is Pride and Prejudice.

It was published in 1985.

This format of the item is a Film (a video).

The two locations where it is available are AN (Annandale) & WO (Woodbridge).

The item was returned to the Annandale campus on 7/23/97, and the Woodbridge campus has a copy that is not checked out.

The call number is PS 4034.P72 1985.

Every field, or section, of a catalog record gives a different piece of information about the item.

We'll explain call numbers in more depth a little later in the tutorial. For now, all you need to know is that they identify where to find a book on the shelf.