The library is one of a researcher’s best friends, especially in an age of digital communication. Your college library may seem daunting at first. Experienced student researchers will tell you that the best way to make the library a friend is to get to know it: a good starting place is its website, where you can find useful information, including its hours of operation, its floor plan, its collections, and so on; many libraries also have a virtual tour and other tutorials on their websites that give you a first-rate introduction to the available resources.

Databases and catalogs

The most important tools your library offers are its online databases and catalogs. Searching these tools will always be easier and more efficient if you use carefully chosen words to limit the scope of your research.

Keyword search

Searches using keywords look for any term in any field of the record, including not just subject but also author, title, series, and notes. In article databases, a keyword search will look in abstracts and summaries of articles as well. Keyword searching requires you to put some thought into choosing your search terms to obtain a manageable number of relevant results.

Subject word search

Library holdings usually index their contents not only by author and title but also by subject headings—standardized words and phrases used to classify the subject matter of books and articles. Most U.S. academic libraries classify their material using the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH. When you find a library source that seems especially relevant, you can use the subject headings for that source as search terms to browse for related titles.

Advanced search options

Many library search engines offer advanced search options (sometimes on a separate page) to help you combine keywords, search for an exact phrase, or exclude items containing particular keywords. Often they can limit your search in other ways as well, such as by date or language. If you don’t see a way to conduct an advanced search, note that simply entering terms in the search box may bring up advanced search options. Note, too, that search engines vary in the exact terms they use to refine searches; for instance, some use phrases such as “all these words,” while others may use the word AND or something else. Most search tools offer tips on how to use the tool effectively, but these general tips can help:

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Articles

Some libraries use discovery tools that allow you to search all available materials at once, but if your library does not, you will need to use a periodical index to find articles. Ask a reference librarian for guidance about the most likely index for the subject of your research.

General and specialized indexes

Different indexes cover different groups of periodicals; articles written before 1990 may be indexed only in a print volume. General indexes of periodicals list articles from general-interest magazines (such as Time), newspapers, and perhaps some scholarly journals. General indexes are useful for finding current sources on a topic. Specialized indexes, which tend to include mainly scholarly periodicals, may focus on one discipline (as the education index ERIC does) or on a group of related disciplines (as Social Sciences Abstracts does).

Full text and abstracts

Some periodical indexes offer the full text of articles, and some offer abstracts (short summaries) of the articles. Be sure not to confuse an abstract with a complete article. Full-text databases can be extremely convenient—you can read and print out articles directly from the computer, without the extra step of tracking down the periodical in question. However, don’t limit yourself to full-text databases, which may not contain graphics and images that appeared in the print version of the periodical and which may not include the sources that would benefit your research most. Take advantage of abstracts, which give you a brief overview of the article’s contents so you can decide whether you need to spend time finding and reading the full text.

To locate a promising article that is not available in a full-text version, check to see whether a print version is available in your library’s periodicals room.

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Books

Libraries categorize books by the author’s name, by the title, and by one or more subjects. If you can’t find a particular source under any of these headings, you can search by using a combination of subject headings and keywords. Such searches may turn up other useful titles as well.

More and more library holdings are digitized, but many books are still available only in print. Catalog entries for print books list not only the author, title, subject, and publication information but also a call number that indicates how the book is classified and where it is shelved. (Many also indicate whether a book has been checked out and, if so, when it is due.) Once you have the call number for a book, look for a library map or shelving plan to tell you where the book is housed. Take the time to browse through the books near the call number you are looking for; often you will find other books related to your topic in the immediate area.

Another strategy for finding books is to check a review index, which will help you find reviews so that you can check the relevance of a book to your project or get a thumbnail sketch of its contents before you track it down. Ask a reference librarian for guidance on review indexes.

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Bibliographies

Look at any bibliographies (lists of sources) in books or articles you are using for your research; they can lead you to other valuable resources. In addition, check with a reference librarian to find out whether your library has more extensive bibliographies devoted to the area of your research.

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Other library resources

In addition to books and periodicals, libraries give you access to many other useful materials that might be appropriate for your research.

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