The catalog can be searched to find items owned and located in the MSU Libraries, including books, journals, government documents, DVDs, CDs, and more.
When should you use the catalog?
NOTE: You cannot use the catalog to find individual articles within a journal. For this you must search in the journal itself or use an article database.
To locate books on specific topics in the library catalog begin with a keyword search, which allows the use of everyday terminology and the combination of two or more concepts (e.g. "food safety and packaging"; "pesticide residues and food"). Click on a title of interest and follow the subject links in the catalog record to locate other books on the same topic. Use the truncation symbol * to retrieve alternate forms of a word (e.g., food contamina* will find food contamination, food contaminants; food label* will find food label, food labels, food labelling).
Alternatively, you can do a subject search instead of a keyword search. Subject searches are more precise, but require the use of the standardized Library of Congress subject headings assigned by catalogers. Some of the official Library of Congress subject headings used in this area are:
FOOD-SAFETY MEASURES
FOOD-TOXICOLOGY
FOOD ADDITIVES
FOOD ADULTERATION AND INSPECTION
FOOD ALLERGY
FOOD CONTAMINATION
FOOD MICROBIOLOGY
FOOD POISONING
FOOD SPOILAGE
FOODBORNE DISEASES
PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN FOOD
RADIATION PRESERVATION OF FOOD
RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION OF FOOD
SEAFOOD CONTAMINATION
You can search the catalog for electronic materials to limit your results to online resources only. You can also browse by discipline to find available resources.
There are also guides to electronic books in both human and veterinary medicine that list select titles alphabetically, arranged by subject. These may be helpful to consult if you are looking for a specific topic.