Guide to Searching For and Accessing Library Materials

From FSU Libraries Subject Pages

Contents 1 Please do not hesitate to ask librarians for help 2 When start a project – three major things to remember 3 Searching 4 Accessing Sources Once You’ve Identified Them

Please do not hesitate to ask librarians for help

- at reference desk

- by setting up a Research Consulation (from homepage, go to Help With Research > One-on-One Help)

When start a project – three major things to remember

- keyword searching in FSU catalog or Worldcat and in databases to find initial sources

- Reference sources

+ useful for:

1. getting introduction to major ideas/concepts

2. defining terms

3. narrowing a topic

+ often have citations at the end of entries provide initial sources to begin research

- Seed research: trace references from initial sources to find more sources

Searching

1)Searching FSU Catalog:

- Can do basic search from main webpage in the search box under “Find books, music, movies and more . . . “

+ This is a good way to begin if you only have a general subject in mind (no specific sources) – just do a search for a term leaving the pull-down menu set to “any field”.

+ You can also use this type of search to search for a specific work by title or author (using the pull-down menu to choose the appropriate field)

+ Once you get initial list of sources, can narrow and find more sources several ways:

1. Re-sort result list with “Sort By” drop-down menu box on right

2. Use “Narrow Results by” menus on left – narrow by format or subject

3. Click on title link for a relevant book and scroll down in book’s record to look at subject headings. Click on a subject heading to find more works with that heading, or copy the heading (or headings if more than one pertain) and run an advanced search for that heading (or part of the heading if it is too specific). You can do the same with author to get a list of all books by that author)

- the advanced search option lets you do more specialized searches

+ search for exact title or author by clicking on the “search begins with (browse)” radio button and selecting “title” or “author” from the pull-down menu

+ limit location to search for reference sources or maps or government documents. Click on advanced search and use drop-down menu for “location.”

- An even more precise form of advanced searching can be found by using “option 3” under advanced search (From the library’s homepage, click on “advanced search” and then scroll down to “Option 3: Search lists of titles, call numbers, etc” ). Some of the advanced features this offers are:

1. truncating with * (make a word a wildcard search term with multiple options – such as religio* to get religion or religious)

2. browsing lists of subject headings (in advanced search, option 3, you can see a list of subject headings holding a keyword. You can’t do this in the regular catalog because searching by a subject keyword automatically brings up a list of books, rather than the headings themselves)

+ you may also want to use the “browse subject heading” tool in”advanced search, option 3” to find the authoritative name for a person (for example, “Rousseau, Jean Jacques”)

3. searching by specific call numbers (not just Library of Congress; this is especially useful for government documents and micromaterials)

2) Searching in Databases

- To access any database, click on “a-z” following “List Databases” under the search box with the heading “Find articles, journals, and databases”

- Click on the appropriate letter and scroll down and click on the link to database you want to search

General Advice on Searching Databases

- Most databases have a basic/general and an advanced search option. The basic/general search often searches keywords, but sometimes lets you select title, author, subject, keyword. A keyword search is usually sufficient to begin.

- Databases are set up differently. Two especially important features for searching vary:

1. Boolean searching (put AND, OR, NOT between words) – interfaces are set up differently to facilitate this

2. truncating – to search for multiple variations of a word (africa* to get africa or african)

You can usually find a help link explaining how various search features work in a specific database

Accessing Sources Once You’ve Identified Them

Find it @ FSU (shows you if a full-text/online copy of the article is available in another database and/or if FSU holds the journal in print)

- not fool-proof – if you do not get any results with “find it @ fsu,” check if we have journal in our catalog by doing a basic search for “journal title” from the pull-down menu.

If FSU does not hold Journal or Book

- Can place an Inter-Library-Loan request (From homepage (http://www.lib.fsu.edu/) > click on “interlibrary loan” link in “Services” menu (right column at center of webpage) – can also do it from “Find it @ FSU” link)

For books or journals held at FSU, go to Reference, Periodicals, or other Circulating Stacks Sections of the Library

- Reference sources: Helpful for

+ defining terms/narrowing topic

+ getting introduction to major ideas/concepts

+ look alphabetically in main section or index of encyclopedia/dictionary for concept

+ some encyclopedia/dictionary articles/entries have lists of citations at the end that you can then go find to begin seed research

A couple of notes about journals

- sometimes nice to use microfilm because you can scan the document to computer

- be aware that some journals have indexes (usually at end of set) – can look up term in there – others you have to browse tables of contents (increasingly these are available in electronic form)