HY 580: Research Seminar in Southern U.S. History: Finding Books

If the book you need is not owned by the Library, we can request it for you from another library. Go to the Interlibrary Loan page for information on registering for an ILL account, requesting materials, and fees.

To find books, DVDs, and government documents in USA Libraries' collections, use SOUTHcat: USA Libraries' Catalog.

• Catalog tips and tricks:
  • Keyword searches – use quotation marks to hold phrases together ("southern states")
  • Truncation – use ? after the root of a word to find all its variants (rac? discriminat? --will find race or racial and discriminate, discrimination, or discriminatory)
  • Browse the Subject(s) field in records to find the right words for searches. (Example: Try doing a keyword search for "african american labor" then look at the subject(s) field in several records. You’ll see that the subject terms could be "African Americans --Employment --Southern States --History," or "African American labor union members --History." Click the subject heading to find more records with the subject phrase.)
• Revise and refine your searches.
• Watch for repeating call numbers and browse stacks in that area.
• Pay attention to the Location and Status fields. You will need this information to locate the item in the library.

Below are some suggested search terms to use when searching the SOUTHcat catalog or library databases. Search techniques may vary with each databases, so look at help screens or ask a librarian for suggestions about using quotation marks and truncation symbols.

Leave out the word "and" when doing a keyword search on SOUTHcat, since this is automatically added if the phrase is not in quotes. Put phrases in quotation marks to search as a phrase. Use ? as a truncation or wildcard symbol in the catalog.

Author

king, martin luther
x, malcolm
kennedy, john f
warren, earl
friedan, betty

Keyword (AND with relevance)

"united states" "20th century" sources
"african americans" sources
newspaper? "united states" bibliograph?
"king papers"
women "united states" diar?
labor? history "20th century"
"southern states" historiography
"southern states" "politics and government"
"southern states" "race relations"
"southern states" autobiography
"health services" history "united states"
agricultur? south?

LC Subject Headings

united states--history--sources
women--united states--history--sources
united states--history--1945-
united states--history--1961-
southern states--history

The USA Libraries subscribe to several subscription e-book collections. These collections tend to focus on a specific discipline or field of study in their coverage.

Part of Google's library-scanning project. Only books in the public domain are shown in full text. Others may have just a citation or show selected pages from the book. Remember, you can check SOUTHcat to see if we have a book you find in Google Books if the full text is not available.