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.

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.

Signing into PittCat gives you access to the most results. The sign in option is in the upper right hand corner of your screen. 

To begin a search, enter a term in the “search anything” box. You can select Books, Articles, and More to search for items across the entire library system including journal articles, images, ebooks, and more. Use the Library Catalog option to search for items available both electronically and physically in our libraries such as books, videos, music scores and more. The Course Reserves option will help you find materials put on reserve by instructors for a specific course.

The Results Screen shows you a list of items with basic information--click on a title to get a more detailed overview of the item you’ve selected. This detailed view gives you much more information about the item. You can see where the item is located and ways to email or print the record as well as how to cite. You may also see an abstract for the item or a table of contents if available.

You can Refine Your Results by using the menu on the left. For instance, if you want a physical copy of a book, you can choose "Held by library" under Show Only. If you want a digital or e-book copy, choose "Available online." 

If Full-Text Content is available, you can get the full-text by clicking on the item title or the "available online" link underneath the description.

You can add Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) into the Simple Search (the default search box) by adding them in all caps.

Search

• Enter your query in the text box in PittCat and press enter or click the green magnifying glass.
• You can choose to search just the Library Catalog.
• In the central panel, you will get search results, ranked by relevance.
• Click on a result for a full view with holding information.
• Add terms to narrow your search.

Refine

• Refine your search results by clicking on any term on the left to focus and narrow your results.
• Refine to Books under Resource Type.
• Refine to your library by clicking it under Library.

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.