USING THE ATHENA ONLINE CATALOG

• Log onto the Boston Athenaeum website: www.bostonathenaeum.org. Click on Enter.
• Click on "Athena Online Catalog" in the left column of the page or on the photograph of the Cutter catalog.
  
• There are four types of searches: Author/Title/Subject, Keyword, Advanced Keyword, and Custom.

Author/Title/Subject is the easiest search and yields the best results if you know the name of the author, the exact beginning of a title or a specific Library of Congress subject heading.
Keyword and Advanced Keyword searches are a good option if you know only a couple words of a title or are searching for a subject that does not appear when you do an Author/Title/Subject search.
Custom searches allow you to search specific fields of the catalog record and combine them to form more complex search strategies.

• You may Limit your search by specific dates, language, item type, medium or place of publication by clicking on the LIMIT box at the bottom of each search page. You may clear the limits by clicking on the box with the pencil eraser at the bottom of the search page.

Author/Title/Subject Search

• Click on Author/Title/Subject. The search screen will appear and your search will automatically default to a search by author. To change the search you must click on the circle preceding Author, Title, Call Number, Subject, or Journal Title.
  
• Now click on the text box until a flashing cursor appears. You may also choose how many records per page you would like to view by clicking on the arrow and highlighting.
  
• Enter your search terms.
  • Author: Last Name, First Initial or Family Name. Click on Search.
    
  • Title: Beginning of the title, omitting initial articles. Click on Search.
    
  • Subject: Library of Congress subject heading. Note that if you enter a subject heading such as "trains" and receive the blinking message "Your search resulted in no hits," you have entered a non- LC subject heading. Begin the search again by using an alternate subject such as "railroads." This will supply you with positive results. There may also be a "See Also" note which will direct you the correct subject heading. Click on Search.
    
  • Journal Title: Enter a magazine or newspaper title. Click on Search.

Keyword or Advanced Keyword Searches

• Keyword Searches: Enter a word or words relevant to the title, author or subject you are searching. Place phrases such as "literary essays" in quotations. Use + to mark essential search words. Use * to mark important search words. Use ? to truncate or search words for both their root and endings. Results will be returned in a ranked list based on relevancy to your search.


• Advanced Keyword Searches: Enter keywords along with AND, OR, or NOT (in capitals) such as ships AND bottles or ships NOT bottles. Group search terms together using parenthesis, (literary essays). Results from this search will be narrower than with a regular Keyword search.

Custom Searches

• Custom Searches: Enter words into the boxes and use the pulldown menus to choose which field you would like to search in. You may combine sets of search words using AND, OR or NOT and you may choose if you want to search all words as a phrase.

Navigating through your Search Results

• After a successful search, you will either be given the information on an individual item or a results list will appear. You may click with the left mouse button on any of the highlighted blue links. These may be titles, personal or corporate names, or subjects. Click on the item you are interested in.
• Each item record contains: a Holdings record and a Bibliographic record. Some items also provide a Table of Contents record.
• Holdings Records: Provide Author, Title, Publisher, Call Number and Circulation Status. 
  
• Bibliographic Records: Provide the same information with Additional Notes, Subject Headings (which you may click on to browse additional titles or subjects), and Series Information such as the years we have a newspaper.
  
• You may move from item record to item record by clicking on the blue "Next" and "Previous" arrows on the top and bottom of the page. 
• Return to the Titles List by clicking on the "Titles" box at the top of the page under the Boston Athenæum banner.
  
• Return to the Headings List by clicking on the "Headings" box.
  
• Review Previous Searches by clicking on the "History" box.
  
• Begin a New Search by clicking on the "Search" box.
  
• See Also notes may appear in Search results lists. By clicking the See Also circle you will be directed to the correct form of name or subject heading.
  
• You may email, save to disc, or print your results.
  
  Please Note: Currently, the Patron and Request boxes are inactive. Make your requests through email, phone or in person at 12 Beacon Street.

   

   

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Page Last Updated:August 28, 2000