Library Resources for HIS210, The Pacific Century: A History of Modern Asia
Scott RauschWinter 2007
Prepared by Elinor Appel, Librarian (contact info.)
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 about the Opium War, start with a simple keyword search:
Then review your results list. Click on a title of a book from the list which looks promising. For example, Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. 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. Subject headings on historical topics range from general to specific, depending on the book's coverage. Some examples:
China History 19th century
China History 1861-1912
China History 1912-1937
China History 1937-1945
China History 1949-1976
China History 1976-2002China--History--Opium War, 1840-1842
China--History--Foreign intervention, 1857-1866
China--History--Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976
When you search the catalog, cast a wide net by using both keywords and subject headings to locate books on your topic.
Final tip: consider all the angles. Look for books that discuss the same topic from different perspectives, such as that of the colonizers: United States, France, Great Britain. Then check the indexes.
Depending on your topic, these titles could be useful:
- France Since 1918 [DC 369.T55] - check the index for Indochina
- DeGaulle and His France [DC 373.G3 L353] - check the index for Indochina
- Time Capsule 1950 [D410.T5 1950] - check the index for Korea
- A Concise History of the British Empire [DA16.G66 1971] - check the index for China
Page created by Elinor Appel. Last update: January 8, 2007.
