Phrase Searching - PittCat allows for phrase searching with the use of “  “. For example, the search "climate change" will find items with the phrase climate change in them.

Wildcard and Truncation – You can use wildcards (* and ?) symbols to search PittCat.

Advanced Searching - Check the Advanced Search for more tips and techniques to enhance your search, including Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT). Note: Boolean Operators must be entered in all uppercase/capital letters.

You can request material through PittCat using Get It, even for material that we do not own. You must be signed in and then click on the item you need. Options within the item:

If you have any questions about this, please contact us so we can work with you to try and get the material you need.

PittCat is the main searching tool for all of the materials owned by the University Library System (ULS), including articles, books, ebooks, journal articles, ejournals, audio and video, digital images, government documents, microfilm and movies.

Enter your search terms and click on the Search Library button. PITTCAT+ will offer correct spellings and search for variations of your search terms.

The Result List will include articles, books, e-materials, and images. Click on the title of an item for more detailed information about the item, such as an abstract or the shelf location of a book. If full-text content is available, you can get the full text  by clicking on the full-text icon to the left of the item.

You can Refine Your Results by using the options on the left.Narrow your results to items in the catalog, a specific campus, format, publication date, limiting to scholarly information, and more.

As you search in PittCat, you can keep track of important items by saving them to your Saved Records list.  To save a record you must be signed into PittCat.  Select the record you want to save, and select the push pin icon in the upper right of that record.

To see your saved records, you can click on the push pin next to your name in the upper right corner or click on your name to open the drop-down menu and select My Favorites. Select the Saved Records heading to see a list of those items you have saved.

You can print, email, or export your selected items individually or as a selected group.

Use the EndNote/Zotero feature to save the items to import into citation management products.