Search for books by geographic place, history, time period. Depending on the topics covered by a book, subject headings can be very broad or very specific. Examples:
You may find subjects for more specific topics:
Keywords--terms that can appear anywhere in a record--are the quick and easy way to search.
Using keywords, you can combine multiple ideas, or locate specific essays inside collective works.
Connectors: Use "and" or "or" to specify multiple words in any field, any order. Use "and not" to exclude words. Examples:
Wildcards: Words may be right-hand truncated using an asterisk or question mark:
Examples : theat*, wom?n
Adjacency: "And" is assumed between words. Place phrases in quotes. Example:
"ottoman empire"
Subject Headings--terms applied by catalogers or indexers--describe the content of the item. Often, subject headings are divided by geographic place, by time period, by ethnic group, or other aspects. Subject headings are searched as phrases.
Using subject headings will pull together related records with terminology you may have not considered in your keyword search.
Examples:
keywords | Subject Headings |
colombian exchange | america--discovery and exploration |
mughul india | mogul empire |
athenian democracy | greece--politics and government--to 146 B.C. |