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:
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 Theater Studies,
Orbis is the primary research catalog. It includes materials in all the Yale
Libraries (except Law), including Drama, Sterling, and the Arts Library. For
Pre-1977 titles in any Yale Library, it may also be necessary to check the
Card Catalog in Sterling. Finally, any law-related topics should be researched
in
Morris instead of Orbis.
Orbis
The collections of the Yale University Library are
represented in multiple online catalogs and card catalogs. Together, Orbis,
Morris (the Law Library catalog) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL)
catalog constitute the Yale University Library online catalog. Orbis is available
through the Internet on the
Library home page.
- Use these catalogs to determine what materials (books, journals, archival collections,
etc.) are held by Yale, and where these items are located.
- Materials published prior to 1977 that do not appear in Orbis (OPAC) can be located
using the "union" card catalog in Sterling Memorial Library. More than half of the Library
collection is represented ONLY in the card catalog.
- There are also numerous Special Library
Catalogs that provide unique access to the Yale Library collections.
For example, Government Documents and Maps are NOT represented in Orbis
or the SML card catalog.
- The Law Library maintains a separate online catalog called Morris.
- Additional materials purchased cooperatively are available through Interlibrary Loan
from the Center for Research Libraries (CRL).
The SML card catalog
The union 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.
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.
Yale University Library Research Guide in Theater Studies