The Catalog of Nonprofit Literature is a searchable database of the literature of philanthropy.  It incorporates the unique contents of the Foundation Center's five libraries and contains over 27,000 full bibliographic citations of which nearly 19,000 have descriptive abstracts.  After finding the citation for an article you searched for, ask at Information & Reference desk, call 715-839-5004 or e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and Reference staff will request a copy free for you from the Foundation Center. 

To access the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature:

• Go to the library's website at www.ecpubliclibrary.info.
• Using the drop down menu under Research choose Grants & Nonprofits.
• Click on Magazine and Journal Articles from the related pages menu.

There are two types of searches in the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature:  Simple (or keyword) Search and Standard Search.  Choosing Standard Search will give you a more detailed search.

Standard Search:

• Click on the Standard Search tab to begin your search.
• Click on the search box for the proper field you wish to search and type in your search term or terms.
• Click on the "Search" button at the bottom of the page.
• You may also use the Index button to display the contents of a field when searching for Authors, Subjects, Publishers and Journals.
• Browse the alphabetical list of headings and then highlight the desired entry.
• Double click or click the "Add" button to paste the term in the search box.   

Tips for Completing a Standard Search:

When using the Index for an Author search, the number in the left column indicates the number of entries by that author in the database. When typing in an author's name, use last name first (with or without a comma) or a corporate name in the Author search box.
• The Title search field includes titles of books, periodical articles and electronic databases.  Searches are performed on both the title and the subtitle.
• When searching for a journal title that contains common stop words such as "the", "to", "for", or  "and", you must enclose the title in quotation marks.
• Because subject headings are assigned using a controlled vocabulary, your search will retrieve more relevant records if you use the proper descriptors.
• You may use the Index button, or type descriptors directly into the "Subject/descriptor" box.
• Use capital "OR" to retrieve records that contain any of the terms entered.
• Us the minus sign "-" right before the term you would to exclude from you search.  When neither operator is used, the Catalog assumes you are using the Boolean AND to connect the terms.
• Records returned will display descriptors, allowing you to refine your search based on the results.
• Use the Index button to view and paste journal titles, or type all or part of the journal you wish to search in the "Journal title" field box.
To limit your search to a specific record type such as articles or electronic resources, open the drop down menu and make your selection.
• To search by year of publication, type the year, (e.g. 2004), into the Years search box.
• To search by more than one year, separate each year of publication by a capital "OR" (2004 OR 2005).
• To select a range of years, use a full colon (1995:2005).
• If you do not find the subject term you were looking for, you may use keyword searching as an alternative.  Keyword queries search in the title, subject and abstract fields only.
• For exact phrase searching, enclose the terms in quotation marks.
• For more information on searching in the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature, click on Guided Tour  from the menu on the right of the Catalog's home page.
  

Viewing Records:

• Results in the Catalog are sorted alphabetically by last name of primary author or by title if no author.
• You may also choose to sort your search results in reverse chronological order by choosing "Year Sort" from the drop down list at the top of the page.
• For a shorter form that excludes abstracts, choose "No Abstracts-Brief".
• Clicking "View/Print Full Citation" provides additional information about the item, such as the call number or subject file number (where the item is located at Center libraries), and hyperlinks to view additional materials published by the author, or on the same topics.

Full-Text Materials:

• The Catalog contains links to full texts of selected articles from periodicals such as Grassroots Fundraising Journal, NonProfit Times and more as well as other reports online.
• To locate full-text items in your search, select Full Text Resources Only on the search screen.