Search by KEYWORD
Begin with a keyword search, then browse the titles of the books retrieved. Select useful titles and look at the subject headings of those titles. These subject headings can lead you to additional books on your topic.
examples: short stories african american
american women writ*
*truncation - use the asterisk* to truncate the root of a word in a keyword search to find variants of that word
example: writ* retrieves write, writer, writing, written
Search by SUBJECT
Subject searches offer a rich and systematic entry into the catalog by way of the subject headings assigned to each item. By exploring subject headings, one may uncover new facets of a topic and related items cataloged under the same subject terms. Use subject headings to gather terminology that can be used when searching meta-catalogs, google books, and article databases.
examples: American fiction -- 20th century
Drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism
Historical fiction, American
Literature - 70 Related Subjects
Novelists, English -- 20th century -- Biography
Search by AUTHOR
Search by the author's name (last name, first name) to locate writings by a particular author.
example: Hemingway, Ernest
Search by TITLE
Use title searches when the exact title is known. Leave out articles such as a, an, the(e, el, le, la...)
example: ship fever