Finding Primary Sources inside of Books

Books are a great resource for the following:

Primary texts:

• folk tales & myths
• poems
• short stories
• photographs
• documents

Secondary sources:

• In-depth critical analysis or historical discussion of a topic

Browse by Call Number

You can use the links below to browse these topical sections of the library's collection:

Folklore: Call # 398

Mythology: Call # 398.2

The box to the right shows how to use the catalog to browse.

Search Terms

1. Keywords are the terms you use to search for information on your topic.
2. Keywords reflect the names and concepts central to your research.
3. Keywords may be general or specific. Example: Desire, Consumerism, "Conspicuous Consumption"
4. You are not limited to the keywords below. Use them as a starting point.

Subject Terms

Subject Headings are the terms, or Keywords, libraries use to pull together information on a subject.

Tip: When you find a book or an article that looks relevant, write down (exactly) its associated Subject term(s). 

You can use this approach to find the most relevant materials.

Examples:

• Instead of beauty: 
  • "beauty culture"
• Instead of desire:
  • "Desire -- Social aspects" 
  • "Sex customs"

Search for books and videos available at the library and online.

Limit by Source Type on the left.

Wondering what to type in the search box? To find Primary Works, search the title of your work, author name, genre (for ex. poetry), or themes from your work.

Be aware that this search box only searches the records for the books, not the full text of the books. So searching more broadly will produce more results than searching narrowly (mythology instead of creation myths). At the same time, focus your search to get good results.

Example: Sex = 1056 results, but Sex AND Consumerism = 6

Example: Mythology =  327, but Creation Myths = 17

• Tip: You can see if the book you want is on Course Reserve.
• Select Eng 161 from the dropdown list at Courses and click: Search.

Browse the Shelf

Libraries are set up for browsing. When you go to the shelf to locate a book, be sure to see what's sitting next to it on the shelf!

You can also browse in the catalog. Follow these steps to do so:

1. In the library catalog, select Advanced Search and type the call number of a book on your topic (that's its subject and location number) into the search box.
2. Use the drop down menu on the left to change "Any field" to "Call Number."
3. Hit search to browse the shelf online.

This shows the search outlined in the text above, searching by call number for 398, to browse the shelf for folklore. 

(click on the image to enlarge)