All of the above examples were shown in the traditional card catalog style of informational presentation

All of the above examples were shown in the traditional card catalog style of informational presentation. For computerized catalogs, the information may be presented in a different style, a slightly different order, or some information may be omitted in the display seen by the patron. Here is an example of how the same information may look on one type of computer catalog display.

AUTHOR           Tripp, Valerie

TITLE                 Happy birthday Josefina! : a springtime story / by Valerie
                            Tripp ; illustrations, Jean-Paul Tibbles

EDITION           1^st ed.

PUBLISHER Middleton, WI : Pleasant Co., 1998.

DESCRIPT 69 p. : col. ill. ; 22 cm.

SERIES The American girls collection

SUMMARY      Josefina hopes to become a "curandera" or healer like T`ia
                           Magdalena, and she is tested just before her tenth birthday
                           when a friend receives a potentially fatal snakebite.

SUBJECTS       1) Healers—Fiction
                           2) Ranch life—New Mexico—Fiction
                           3) Mexican Americans—Fiction

Depending on the abilities of the cataloging program and the choices specified for display in the parameters set up when the program was installed in the library, the style of display may vary considerably from library to library. The basic information that should always be shown is the call number, author, title, publication information, series and/or edition, and ISBN number.

Many times this information is listed with the same punctuation as in a card format, but the order and spacing of the areas of information may differ slightly. Notes will often be listed, and subject headings and other access points will also often be shown. All the required information is given in the cataloging records, but the format of the display for the patrons is determined by options in the access portion of the catalog. How information is entered into a computerized catalog will be addressed further in the MARC section of this course.