Catalogs

Acorn, DiscoverLibrary, WorldCat . . . what's the difference? Which one should I use?

Acorn

• Use this catalog to find items which Vanderbilt owns or to which it provides access.
• What you'll find in Acorn: records that describe books, journals (but NOT anything inside those journals, like articles), DVDs/videos, CDs/audiotapes, government documents, e-books, non-electronic reserves (books, videos, etc.), selected Web sites, etc.
• Learn more about the differences between Acorn and DiscoverLibrary.

DiscoverLibrary

• A new search and discovery tool for library resources.
• Complements Acorn by searching and displaying the same material Acorn searches, but in a different way.
• DiscoverLibrary also searches additional material, like the TV News Archive, the Global Music Archive, and certain databases.
• Learn more about the differences between Acorn and DiscoverLibrary.

WorldCat

• A catalog that tells you what libraries around the world (including Vanderbilt's) own. If Vanderbilt doesn't have what you're looking for, try WorldCat.
• Items that we don't own may be available through interlibrary loan.

Other catalogs:

• Athena: searches Acorn and the catalogs of several Nashville area libraries
• Kudzu: searches Acorn and the catalogs of 15 other southeastern academic libraries
• Center for Research Libraries: international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries. Collections include: largest collection of circulating newspapers in North America; more than 38,000 international journals rarely held in U.S. and Canadian libraries; and so on.

If you want to search a catalog at a particular library, try lib-web-cats, a directory of libraries worldwide that includes links to their online catalogs.