How do I search for an item?

The Library catalog allows you to search for items by keyword, author, title or subject.

For example if you are looking for Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer you can search by:

Keyword: krakauer thin air

or

Title starts with: into thin

or

Author: krakauer, jon

or

Subject: mountaineering accidents

Non-fiction books will have a call number, fictional books are shelved by Author.

If the item status says checked out, that means it is not available. The item status should say checked in. If the item's collection says New Books, it will be located near the Reference Desk in the new book display area. If it says Recent Check In, that means it was just returned and may be temporarily stored in the pre-shelving areas.

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How do I search for music CDs?

From the library catalog site, click on Media on the brown location bar to type your search term in the Music CDs Keyword box and click Search. Alternatively, you can click on Search Music CDs on the Library catalog menu search box at the top of this page.

What does My List mean?

The My list feature allows you to save up to 25 titles in up to 25 different lists for up to 90 days.
My List is useful for keeping a list of books that you may want to read in the future or have enjoyed in the past.

Due to limited space constraints, the library's My List feature is not useful for long term saving of lists. We recommend using one of these free sites: Amazon Lists, Goodreads, LibraryThing, LivingSocial, Shelfari, weRead, Worldcat for an extensive archive of your book lists.

Why can't I save or access My List?

You must be logged into your account first to save your lists. Once you are logged in, you can access saved My Lists by clicking on the My List link located in the upper right corner of the catalog.

If you have trouble adding new books to my list, try deleting all existing saved entries to start with a fresh list.

Please note that if you click on any of the location links like All Locations, Children's, Media, Banning, Helen Murphy, Main Street, Oak View, Genealogy you will be logged out of your account. Use the New Search or Advanced links if you wish to remain logged in.

What does location mean?

The library has holdings in 5 different Huntington Beach locations:

• Central Library at 7111 Talbert Ave
• Banning at 9281 Banning Ave
• Helen Murphy at 15882 Graham St
• Main St at 525 Main St
• Oak View at 17251 Oak Lane

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What does keyword search mean?

The library keeps track of items with records that contain the title, author, subject, and summary description. When you use keyword to search for an item, the system searches all areas of the record: the title, author, subject, and summary.

A keyword search of homer would retrieve a record with a title of Homer's Odyssey, another title called The Far Reaches by author Homer Hickam, and a Bob Dylan music CD that has the song Open the door, Homer in the summary description.

If you knew two pieces of information like the author and title you could do a keyword using the words homer and reaches to narrow in on author Homer Hickam's book, The Far Reaches. With keyword search the exact order of the words does not matter. However, you do need to be exact in spelling. If you did a keyword search with a misspelled homor, you would not get any search results

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What does browse or starts with search mean?

Browse or starts with can be used to search title, author or subject fields. When you use a starts with (browse) search, you would enter the first few words of a title. For example: if you were looking for  Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea” , you would enter “the old man”. That would drop you into an alphabetical title list of books starting with the words “old man”.

You can also do an author starts with search but you need to enter the search as last name, first name for it to work. For an author browse search you would enter Hemingway, Ernest.  

You can also do a subject browse search.  If you were looking for books on knitting, you would use the word knitting as your subject term. With a browse search you do not have to be as exact in spelling as you would in a keyword search because you will always get some results, but you have to be somewhat close. Doing an author browse search of himingway, ernest would put you far down on the listing so you would have to scroll backwards many times to find hemingway.

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What does request item mean?

Request item allows you to be placed on a waiting list for a book that is checked out or on order (do not put a request in for a book that is checked in). This service costs $1.00 and is non-refundable once you place the request. You pay when you pick up the book. The library will call you when the book is ready to be picked up.

What does call no. mean?

Call no. is an abbreviation for call number, the number used to find the book on the shelf. After you do a catalog search for a book and see that the status is checked in, you can find the book by writing down the call number and searching the shelves. Library books are organized by call number and many public libraries use the Dewey Decimal classification system. Fiction is shelved by the author's last name. Non-fiction (real and factual) is shelved by subject with a Dewey number. For example, Gone with Wind by Margaret Mitchell would be shelved alphabetically in the fiction "M" section with a call number of FIC Mitchell, M. Non-fiction books like Cooking A to Z would be shelved numerically in the 640 cooking subject section. All Children's books are identified by an X in front of the call number.

Call number prefix codes:

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Why can't I access ebooks?

At this time, Huntington Beach Public Library does not offer ebooks.

You may access free ebooks at these sites: Google ebooks, Project Gutenberg, Orange County Public Library.

The library does have historical Adobe PDF files available online on the local history page, but they are not current or popular documents.