The catalogue search function searches library collections of all campuses and colleges at UofT. While the Library catalogue is good with search using simplified or traditional Chinese characters, the system works best with search in pinyin (拼音), which is the chosen standard of Latin script representations for Chinese characters in the library system. To search effectively, please beware of the following search rules:  

1. The general rule for Pinyin romanization in cataloguing is that individual syllables are to be romanized separately.  The exceptions to this rule are personal names, geographic locations, and certain proper nouns, in which case the syllables are written together. 
    
2. For Chinese personal names, the rule is to separate the Pinyin of the family name from the given name. For example, "李白" will be romanized as "Li Bai", and "邓小平" as "Deng Xiaoping".  
    
3. Geographical names are treated as proper names, and the syllables asociated with multi-character geographic names are joined together. For example, "广州市" is romanized as "Guangzhou Shi"; and "四川省成都市" as "Sichuan Sheng Chengdu Shi" (the name of jurisdictions, such as Sheng 省, Shi 市, and Qu 区 are separated from the geographical proper name). 
    
4. To find exact matches, search exact Pinyin titles in quotation marks. 

As an alternative to the UofT catalogue, we'd also like to recommend WorldCat, an online union catalogue of American, Canadian and international academic libraries.