About the Yale Library Catalogs
In order to locate most material within the Yale Library collections, you need to consult one of the Yale Library Catalogs:
- Orbis
- Card Catalog in Sterling Memorial Library
- Specialized library catalogs
- Morris (Law Library Catalog)
Use these catalogs to determine the location and call number of books, journals, manuscript collections, sound recordings, databases, and any other type of material in the library's collections. For research in Film Studies, Orbis is the primary research catalog. For Pre-1977 titles, it may also be necessary to check the Card Catalog in Sterling. Finally, any law-related topics should be researched in Morris as well as Orbis.
Once you have determined in the catalog that Yale owns the item you are seeking and that it is located in Sterling Memorial Library, check the Sterling Memorial Library Call Number and Stack Directory to determine on which floor it is located. If it is in another library (Cross Campus Library, Art & Architecture, etc.), find more information about that library in the Guide to Libraries and Collections or check out the list of Library Hours.
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to Orbis
Orbis
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Orbis
Tutorial
- Use these catalogs to determine what
materials (books, journals, archival collections, etc.) are held
by Yale, and where these items are located.
- Occasionally, some information does not appear in Orbis and
can be located using the card catalog in Sterling Memorial Library.
- There are also numerous Special
Library Catalogs that provide unique access to the Yale
Library collections. For example, maps are NOT represented in
Orbis or the SML card catalog.
- The Law Library maintains a separate online catalog called
Morris.
- Additional materials are available through Borrow Direct and Interlibrary Loan. This includes materials (mainly microfilms) at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), which Yale purchased in cooperation with other research libraries.
Meet the Behemoth: AGuide to the SML Card Catalog
The card catalog in the nave of Sterling Memorial Library contains 11,986 drawers, representing over 100 years of cataloging records for the fourth largest library in the United States. It contains cards for material in most, but not all, formats held by most, but not all, libraries in the Yale University Library system represented on a combination of handwritten, half-height cards; typewritten cards; and computer-produced cards. Check in the card catalog for library materials published before 1977 by author's last name, title of work, or in the subject card catalog.
NOTE: Most -- but not all -- of the information in the card catalog has been entered into Orbis. Some information about journal holdings and materials in non-roman scripts is still being added to the online catalog. Consequently the card catalog is not a relic: it can still be useful. However, it will eventually be moved out of the SML nave. The cards in the Subject side have been completely removed, and only the Name/Title side will exist in the future.
Special Library Catalogs in the Yale University Library
Although the card catalog in Sterling Memorial Library is commonly thought of as the Yale Library's "union catalog," it does not contain, in fact, records for all materials in all formats. Over the long history of the Yale Library, many special catalogs have been created to describe those collections not otherwise represented in the "union catalog" or, in more recent years, in the online catalog Orbis. These special catalogs have been created in a variety of ways: as handwritten indexes, in traditional card format, as published book catalogs, and more recently, as database files. For manuscript and archival collections, finding aids have been created to provide access to this type of material. Other special catalogs have been created to provide access to specific kinds of information about the collections: e.g., tracings for bindings, provenance information, imprint files, etc.
