Where to find books
- Library CatalogThe library catalog for ALL of the 9 Vanderbilt Libraries. You can use it to find:
• Books
• DVDs & Videos
• Periodical Titles
• Individual articles
• Reserve materials
and more... - Google BooksSearches the full text of books that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. Most titles are no longer in print or commercially available.
- WorldCat (FirstSearch) This link opens in a new windowWorldCat is the OCLC Online Union Catalog, containing more than 125 million records describing items owned by U.S. libraries and libraries around the world. Each record contains library holdings and links to our interlibrary loan service.
- Center for Research Libraries This link opens in a new windowA consortium of North American libraries that acquire and preserve newspapers, journals, documents, archives, etc. CRL holdings can be borrowed for extended periods via Interlibrary Loan.
Keyword vs. Subject Searching
Step 1: Start your search process by brainstorming a list of keywords that describe the main concepts of your topic or question.
Step 2: When you find a relevant title, click on its title to see its Library Catalog record.
Scroll down to its Subject Headings: "Subject." Click on the links to see all the other titles in Library Catalog listed under the same subject heading (tag).
Useful Library of Congress Subject Headings
Try a "SUBJECT starts with" search using Library of Congress Subject Headings:
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Slavery America
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Slaves Emancipation
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Women slaves
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Slaveholders
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| Slave insurrections Brazil |
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Antislavery movements
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Fugitive slaves
Slave trade
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Indian slaveholders
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Indian slaves
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E-book Collections
- eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
- HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
- Ebook Central (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Search Tips in Library Catalog
1. Use AND to combine terms
example: slaves AND mexico
2. Use OR to search related terms
example: slave OR slavery
3. Use $ to truncate a word and return all possible variants (slave, slaves, slavery)
4. Use ? to find single letter variants (slave? searches slaves or slave)
5. Use parentheses to search for for related terms
(slave? or slavery) and (indians or Choctaw?)
