Use “Book from the Catalog” for any resources in your guide that point to materials in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. It is always preferable to include any materials linking to the online catalog using this method, vs. embedding links in narrative text. In addition to the guidelines and instructions below, please always precede lists of materials from the online catalog with the some version of the boilerplate text found at the bottom of this page.

General Guidelines

1. Always use the LCCN permalink for the URL
2. Use ISBN to retrieve book cover and basic descriptions (consider editing the descriptions that come in to make them more relevant to the content of your guide, and in some cases… shorter).
3. For book materials with no automatic book cover image, use the general “blue book” icon (it is also possible to include your own cover images when appropriate)
4. For non-books materials, use the Resource Icons for Special Format Materials
5. For MSS collections, please use the title as it appears in the OPAC (without the dates)
   For example -- https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78013037 -- use “Tasker Howard Bliss papers” as the title Use either: “1864-1933 (bulk 1917-1930)” or “1917-1930” as the publication date

In order to add a "Book from the Catalog," you will need to work with both LibGuides and the Library of Congress Online Catalog. It is useful to have each open in a separate tab. Within an existing box, to add a "Book from the Catalog" to your page:

• Select the "Add / Reorder" button to open the drop-down menu
• From that menu, select "Book from the Catalog"

Adding a Book Using an ISBN

Most recently published books have International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs). Using the ISBN, you can easily pull the basic metadata about an item and the book cover automatically by entering the ISBN and selecting the "Get Book Info" button.  Most books added this way will come with a description which you can accept, or edit. 

You will still need to add the following information to complete the process:

• URL - use only the LCCN permalink here
• Call Number
• Description - edit or add descriptive information here

Please Note: if no book cover comes in with the metadata, you should use the "Default Blue" cover image.

Adding a Book Without an ISBN

If the book does not have an ISBN, you will need to enter all of the metadata manually (you can easily "cut and paste" the data, on field at a time, from the online catalog record. It is recommended that you include as much of the following information as is available:

• Title
• Author/Editor
• Publication Date
• Call Number
• URL - enter the LCCN Permalink here
• Description - if you want to include some addition information about the book, or where to find the recommended information, include it here. You can include HTML coding and links in this field.
• Cover Art - select "Default - Blue" and "Small - 90 px wide"

Adding Non-Book Materials

To add special format materials from the Library of Congress Online Catalog you will follow the same instructions as for a book without an ISBN:

1. Select the "Add/Reorder" button
2. Select "Book from the Catalog"
3. Supply all of the following metadata as is possible:
   • Title
   • Author/Editor
   • Publication Date
   • Call Number
   • URL - em>enter only the LCCN Permalink here
   • Description - if you want to include some addition information about the book, or where to find the recommended information, include it here. You can include HTML coding and links in this field.
4. For "Cover Art" you will need to select from a list of generic icon available for use at the Library of Congress:
   • Under Cover Art, select "Other" from the drop-down menu
   • Copy and paste the relevant special format icon URL in the "Enter Cover Art URL" field
   • Select "Medium - 140px wide"
   • Enter the appropriate "ALT Text" for the resource icon you selected
5. Go to the Resource Icons page in this manual for a full list of available Special Format Icons