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FYSB 1294: Art, Sex, & American Culture

Library catalogs

CLIO Quicksearch

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CLIO is the library catalog for the Columbia Library System (including Barnard Library, but excluding Teachers College and some information from the Law Library). In CLIO you can find books and media materials, search for different kinds of databases, and find articles within those databases as well.

Catalog search tips

  • If you know exactly what book (journal, video, etc.) you are looking for, you can search by Title, Author, ISBN, etc.
  • To find items about a specific topic, first try a keyword search in All Fields.
    • Use "quotation marks" to search for an exact phrase: "black lives matter" 
    • Use ? for wildcard, and * for truncation (to find variant spellings and endings of a word): wom?n will find woman, women, womyn; ethnicit* will find ethnicity, ethnicities, etc.
    • For more complex search, use AND and OR:
      • AND finds records which have all the search terms you entered.
      • OR finds records which have one of the search terms you entered, as well as records which have more than one of the terms. OR finds MORE.
      • For more help with using AND and OR, check out our guide to boolean logic. 
    • Use parentheses to group terms:  (wom?n OR gender) AND (#blacklivesmatter OR "black lives matter") 
  • Subject headings: If you find a book that's relevant, look at its subject headings in CLIO and click through to find more related works.
    • Look for subheadings that indicate historical content or critical interpretations:
      • topics/institutions - “sociological aspects”
      • places (countries, cities, etc.) and groups of people/communities - “social conditions”
      • effect of item, activity, discipline, etc. on society - “social aspects”

Borrow Direct and Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

There are benefits to using both Borrow Direct and Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Which service you should use largely depends on your research needs and the item you are trying to obtain.  Most people use a mix of both services.

The following table outlines some specifics of Borrow Direct vs. ILL.

  Borrow Direct ILL
Books ● ●
Articles/book chapter scans (.pdf)   ●
Music scores ● ●
Music CDs ● ●
Non-book loans (DVDs, microfilm, dissertations, maps, etc.) ● ●
Delivery in 3-5 business days ●  
16-week loan period ●  
Renewal option   ●
Subject to recall by lender ● ●
International loans and articles   ●
Loans from a library other than the Borrow Direct partners (including public, law, medical, special collections, etc.)   ●

Here are some sample scenarios that might help you decide which service to use.

I need to borrow a book that is checked out at Columbia.  It is for a class assignment due in two weeks.

When speed is the issue for a loan, try Borrow Direct first.  If the book is unavailable through Borrow Direct, try ILL.  Keep in mind that ILL loans generally arrive within two weeks, which may be too late for your assignment.  Adjust the "Not Wanted After Date" on the ILL form to reflect your actual deadline.

I need to borrow a multi-volume set or one volume from a multi-volume set.

Although both services can accommodate multiple-volume-set requests, Borrow Direct is the better choice for ordering several volumes at once.  Indicate in the "Notes" field which volumes you need.  Typically, partner libraries will send no more than 5 volumes at a time of larger sets.  Please contact Borrow Direct staff if you need assistance (borrowdirect@columbia.edu).

I tried to place a Borrow Direct request for a book that Columbia does not own.  Even though I find the book through a Borrow Direct catalog search, the system will not let me place a request. What are my options?

Place an ILL request for the item if it is unavailable in Borrow Direct.

I need to borrow a book for the semester.  I know that a Borrow Direct library owns it. Should I use Borrow Direct or ILL?

Use Borrow Direct because the standardized loan period is 16 weeks, no renewals.  ILL does offer a renewal option but both the loan period and ability to renew are at the lender's discretion.  All loans are subject to recall.

(The content of this page comes from Columbia's page on BorrowDirect vs ILL)