Often there are ample published studies already about a subject. Depending on your historical topic, there may not be an entire book on every episode or person.

If you can't find a book on your topic, try:

• expanding your search
  For example, a general book on the blues might have chapters or sections on Arkansas and Arkansas musicians.
  
  
• looking for journal articles, rather than books
  Journal articles usually cover much more specific subjects than whole books. For example, while a book might cover all of Arkansas during the Great Depression, you might find a journal article on Van Buren during the Great Depression.
  
  
• ask a librarian for help
  There's someone available 24/7.

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:

• plantations and arkansas
• civil war or reconstruction
• mcmath and not bob

Wildcards: Words may be right-hand truncated using an asterisk or question mark:

• * for any number of characters
• ? to replace a single character anywhere within a word

Examples : slave*, wom?n

Adjacency: "And" is assumed between words. Place phrases in quotes. Example:

"brooks baxter"

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: