This database includes index citations to articles published in Roman Catholic periodicals, as well as to papal documents, church promulgations, and books about the Catholic faith, authored by Catholics, or produced by Catholic publishers. Coverage begins in 1981. The database does not provide full-text access to the items indexed. The database can only be accessed from within the Divinity Library.

Searching: The search interface is fairly straightforward with search boxes indicated for the various fields. You do not need to fill in every search box. Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) after each field allow you to combine search terms as follows:

• OR searching means that one or more of the selected terms must be in the specified fields but all the terms don't have to be for a record to be retrieved.

• AND searching means that terms on either side of the AND must both be in the record for it to be retrieved.

• NOT searching means that the selected term after the not must not be in the record; if the term is in the record, the record will not be retrieved.

By default, the Boolean operators are already set to AND; use the drop down to change to OR or NOT.

To search for more than one word within the same field, simply type the terms you wish to search for in the field box and link them with AND, OR, or NOT. So, for example, typing in "agape OR caritas" in the keyword field will retrieve all records that have either of these terms as keywords. Terms in a single field that are not separated by one of the Boolean operators are treated as AND searches. For example, if you type "feminism ecology" in the keyword field, only records that have both these terms as keywords will be retrieved.

At the bottom of the page you can click on the tab for More Fields for more fields to search.

You can also browse the available terms within a specific field by hitting the Browse button to the right of the field. Clicking the Browse button will open up a window where you can either scroll down the list or type in the first few letters of the term you're interested in. When you find a term in the list that you'd like to search, highlight it and press OK and it will pop the term into the search box for that field.

Once you are ready to perform your search, hit the Search button on the lower right hand side of the page. Return to Top

Results: Once you have run your search, you will get a list of results. To view the full record for any item in the list, either double click on the desired results or highlight the result you want to view and click on the blue arrow that points to the right (on the top button bar).

Once you are in the full record view, you can see the full record for the next result in your list by clicking the black arrow pointing down (on the button bar at the top of the page). To return to the search interface, click on the button at the top that looks like a large magnifying glass (the first button on the button bar). To go back to the results for your latest search, click on the second button on the button bar (the button that looks like a magnifying glass with a small page in the corner).

At the bottom of the page are tabs that allow you to switch between the search interface (Search Fields and More Fields), a summary of your search and results (Search Term Summary), your list of results (Results List/Sort) and the full record display for a single record (Full Record Display). Return to Top

Search History: You can go back to previous searches by clicking on the 3rd button at the top of the page, the one that looks like several magnifying glasses. All previously run searches will be listed, and you can rerun any of these searches by highlighting the one you want and clicking Load. Return to Top

Printing: The print button is on the button bar at the top of the page, and looks like a printer. Clicking on this button will open up the print window where you can select a record range. By default, it will indicate the current record that is highlighted (if you are in the results list) or the record that is currently open in full display. However, you can change the print range to print all the records in a list of results, or selected records. To select records, from the results list simply click on the check boxes next to the records you wish to select. Return to Top

This document was created by Amy Limpitlaw for the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library on February 24, 2004. Last updated: February 24, 2004.