Always search the online catalog first in pinyin. If you do not find what you are looking for, repeat the search in Wade-Giles. If your search is still unsuccessful, search the card catalog in Wade-Giles (There are no pinyin records in the card catalog).
You may also refer to the What's in Pinyin, What's in Wade-Giles page for an outline of which type of catalog records are in pinyin and which are still in Wade-Giles. Please consider this informational; it is not intended to be a searching guide. Staff are constantly converting Wade-Giles records to pinyin, and you will be best served in most cases by searching first in pinyin.
Familiarize yourself with the pinyin romanization rules used in the catalog. See our Notes on the Library of Congress Version of Pinyin Romanization for a summary the rules and major exceptions.
There are a significant number of records in the catalog which contain variations in word division, machine conversion errors, and unexpected romanizations. When you are unsuccessful in a search for an item, please BE CREATIVE and try several approaches with respect to word division and possible consonant combinations. As always, if you encounter problems finding Chinese materials in the catalogs, please do not hesitate to ask a staff member for assistance.
IMPORTANT ADVISORY - At the present time there is no cross referencing between the simplified and traditional form of characters in the catalog. Unlike some search engines on the web, a search constructed in simplified characters in the UW online catalog will retrieve only records in simplified characters. Likewise, a search constructed in traditional characters will retrieve only records in traditional characters. Consequently, it may be necessary to do two searches for the same title or keyword, one in simplified and one in traditional characters.