The Virtual Catalog searches through many individual Massachusetts library catalogs for a book, CD, audio or video and then informs you who owns it and whether it is on the shelf. As the Virtual Catalog grows, it will become your first stop for finding library material in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts has over 50 online library catalogs. Each catalog is a separate physical computer system. Each catalog has its own user interface, search and display screens, and borrowing mechanism. In some catalogs you can find books and magazines owned by an individual college or university. In others, the network catalogs, you will find material owned by dozens of libraries, including about 325 of the 370 public libraries in Massachusetts. Until now there has not been a quick or simple way to search for material across these catalogs. The Virtual Catalog solves this problem.