Browsing and Searching in BARD

The following is from an email from the BARD Technical Support Team to the BARD Support List. As it concerns browsing and searching in BARD, it may be useful to our blog readers.

Under the “Find Books” heading, located near the top of the BARD Main Page, we have seven options for exploring the BARD collection. Each of these options is a Level 3 heading, so you can jump quickly from one option to the next. Here’s what they are and how they work:

1. Recently Added Books: Displays a list of books added to BARD in the last 30 days. Books are grouped by the date on which they were added. The dates are in reverse chronological order. Since each date has its own Level 2 heading, you can easily jump from date to date in this list of most recently added books.

2. Most Popular Books: Displays a list of the books most frequently downloaded in the last 90 days. Level 2 headings for Fiction and Nonfiction group the entries by genre.

3. Search the Collection: Provides an edit box into which you can enter the terms you want to use when searching the BARD collection. If you know a book’s catalog number, you can find the book quickly by simply putting the five digit number (without the letters DB) into the edit box. If you are looking for a specific title, we recommend that you enclose it in quotation marks. Similarly, use quotation marks around an author’s name if you only want books by that author, or around a narrator’s name if you only want books read by that person. Note that authors’ names are catalogued in the form Last Name, comma, First Name, but narrators’ names appear as First Name, Last name. Thus, while you would search for “Shakespeare, William” (with a comma after his last name), you would search for Pam Ward, with no comma between her first and last names.

Of course, there will be times when you don’t want to limit your search to a specific title, author, or narrator. Let’s say, for example, that you would like to locate books of poetry by John Updike. You might try entering the author’s last name and the word Poetry, with no quotation marks, to see what entries contain both “Updike” and “poetry.” You will be shown all books where both terms appear. In this way, you can concentrate on his volumes of poetry without having to wade through all of his novels, short story collections, and essays. Similarly, you might choose to enter the terms William and Shakespeare, with no quotation marks into the edit box, in order to see every entry where those two terms appear. Instead of getting just the works he wrote, you would also get anything from a biography or an analysis of his plays to a book of science fiction where he appears as one of the characters.

4. Browse by Authors’ Last Names: Allows you to browse all the books by authors whose last names begin with a given letter. To choose a letter, you need to open a combo box and either arrow to the letter you want, or simply type it. (Note: To open the combo box, press Alt and Down arrow.) Once you have selected your letter, tab to the Go button and hit Enter.

5. Browse by Book Title: Allows you to browse all titles beginning with a given letter. To choose a letter, you need to open a combo box and either arrow to the letter you want, or simply type it. (Note: To open the combo box, press Alt and Down arrow.) Once you have selected your letter, tab to the Go button and hit Enter. Remember that the articles "A," "An," and "The" are ignored in the cataloguing process when they are the first words in a title. Thus, "The Family of Adoption" and "A Family of Poems" would both be listed under the letter "F," and "An Impartial Witness" would be catalogued under the letter "I."

6. Browse by Subject: Allows you to browse a list of books related to one of 85 possible subjects. Choose the subject which interests you by opening a combo box and arrowing to it. Then tab to the Go button and hit Enter. (To open the combo box, press Alt and Down arrow.)

7. Digital Foreign Language Collection: Provides a list of specially acquired digital titles in languages other than English obtained from agencies serving persons with print disabilities in other nations, as well as commercial vendors abroad. These are distinct from the foreign language titles produced by NLS (mostly Spanish) that are available for download from BARD. All titles in the DFL collection bear the prefix DBF - for digital talking book, foreign.

Since the Digital Foreign Language Collection is still in its infancy, it currently contains only books in Spanish. However, the structure of the page containing this list suggests that, once the collection has grown to include titles in other languages, you will be able to jump from language to language by means of Level 3 headings.

Finally, we want to call your attention to the fact that you can also search for BARD books in the NLS Voyager catalog. In addition to containing the same information you would find when searching the BARD website, Voyager contains complete annotations and publisher information. It also includes entries for new books coming to BARD and NLS which are listed as "in process". Voyager, like BARD, provides links for downloading BARD books.

To search the NLS catalog, go to

www.loc.gov/nls

and follow the link called "Search the Catalog," located near the top of the NLS Main Page. If you need more instructions on how to do this, we recommend calling your regional NLS library.

The BARD Technical Support Team
NLS BARD Technical Support
e-mail: NLSDownload@loc.gov
Read the BARD FAQ at: https://nlsbard.loc.gov/NLS/FAQ.html