Library Resources for HIS112: US History Since 1865
Dr. Maureen NuttingWinter 2007
Prepared by Elinor Appel, Librarian (contact info.)
- Course website: http://northonline.sccd.ctc.edu/his112mn
- Course documents: 100 Milestone Documents (National Archives and Records Administration)
Finding Books
Keywords to Subject Headings
To find books on your topic in the NSCC library, look in the library catalog. Students (and many librarians) usually find it easiest to begin with a keyword search. Select "Keyword Relevance Search," then type in your search terms. For example, to find books on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, try a keyword search:
Then review your results list. Click on a title of a book from the list which looks promising. For example, Japanese American Internment Camps. When you click on a book's title, you are opening up the catalog record for that book. Take a look at the Subjects.
These subjects are Library of Congress (or LC) subject headings. Some book records may include several useful subject headings.Click on these headings to find more books for your research.
Subject headings are a type of controlled vocabulary. Controlled vocabularies were created to streamline the research process, creating one term or group of terms to represent myriad terms. LC subject headings are "built" by catalogers according to rules established by the Library of Congress. Subject headings provide a standardized way of describing a book. Some examples:
Afro-American women social reformers
Afro-American women civil rights workers
Cold War
Immigrants--United States-History
Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Refugees--United States-History
United States History 1849-1877
United States History 1865-1898
United States History 1919-1933
United States History 1961-1969
Vietnamese Americans--Ethnic identity
When you search the catalog, cast a wide net by using both keywords and subject headings to locate books on your topic.
And don't forget to ask a librarian for help if you get stuck. :-)
Page created by Elinor Appel. Last update: January 2, 2007.
