Catalogs
- University of Illinois Library CatalogUse the Library Catalog to identify books, journals (but not journal articles), microform collections, and digital collections owned by the University of Illinois. The Library Catalog is the primary tool for exploring the collections of the University of Illinois Library, the second largest academic library collection in the United States. In the Library Catalog you can search for books by subject, and you identify the location within the Library of a particular book or journal. Books and journals are organized in the library by subject. Each item is assigned one or more subject headings and a unique call number. Subject headings are standardized terms from the Library of Congress. The call number is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification or Library of Congress Classification. Boolean operators must be capitalized if used: AND, OR, NOT. Interface automatically truncates some search terms unless Boolean operators are used within the same query line. You can also browse catalog records by call number, creating a "virtual shelf browsing" experience.
- I-Share CatalogUse the I-Share catalog to find books not available at the University of Illinois (either because another patron has already charged this book, or because the book isn't part of the collection here). I-Share is a single catalog through which you can search and request books from the collections of 85+ academic and research libraries in Illinois. You request books from a participating I-Share library the same way you request books from University of Illinois libraries—simply click the "Request Item" tab, log in to your account (the same account you use to manage books you have borrowed from the University of Illinois Library), and complete the request. Books requested from I-Share libraries usually arrive withing three to four days, and you will receive an email when your book is ready to be picked up. You can borrow I-Share books for 4 weeks, and renew each book up to 3 times (for a maximum circulating period of 16 weeks).
Subject Headings
Why bother with subject headings when you can do keyword searching in the Online Catalog?
It's true that you can find sources on a topic by doing keyword searches. But if you limit yourself to keyword searching, you are likely to miss important material on your topic that uses other terms. If you only need two or three books, you can probably find what you need by doing keyword searches, but if you are doing historical research, you can’t afford to miss critical material on your topic. For a comprehensive search on a historical topic, search with subject headings as well as keywords.
A good way to identify subject headings for a topic is to do a keyword search in the online catalog using terms you think describe the topic and try to identify a few relevant books. Look at the full record for those books to see what subject headings were used, then do another search on those headings.
As a rule of thumb, use fairly broad headings, as well as the specific ones that describe your topic, in order to make sure you haven't inadvertently eliminated relevant material that is contained within works of larger scope. Most likely you will find multiple headings to describe your topic, and you should use all of them. You can narrow your search in the online catalog by combining subject headings (as a phrase) with keywords, using the “Advanced Search” option.
Some examples of subject headings
- Fundamentalism--United States
- Evangelicalism--United States--History
- Evangelicalism--United States--History--20th century
- Evangelists--United States--Biography
- Revivals--History
- Revivals--United States
- United States--Church history
- Religious broadcasting
- Religion and culture--United States
- Radio in religion
- Television in religion
- United States--Church history
- United States --Church history --20th century
- Protestant churches --United States --History
- Liberalism (Religion) --United States
- Liberalism (Religion) --Protestant churches
- African Americans --Religion
- Pentacostals
- Pentecostal churches --United States
- Pentecostalism --United States
- Millenialism
- Religion and culture --United States
- United States --Religious life and customs
- Religion in the public schools --United States
- Universities and colleges --United States --Religion
- Christian education --United States
- Popular culture --Religious aspects --Christianity
- Religious broadcasting
- Christianity and politics --United States
Searching the Online Catalog
The online catalog offers both “Quick Search” and “Advanced Search” options. Use “Advanced Search” to identify subject headings on your topic, to combine subject headings (or elements from subject headings) in a Boolean search, or to combine keywords from any part of the record with subject headings to narrow your search.
Use “Quick Search” to browse a subject heading, to search a title when you know exactly how it begins, to locate a work or works by a particular author, or to search by call number for a specific book.
Shelf Browsing
In order to browse the shelves, you need to know the “Dewey number” for your topic. At the UIUC Library, we use the Dewey Decimal Classification to organize our collection of more than 10 million items. In Dewey, the first three numbers indicate the main subject, and additional numbers are added after a decimal point to narrow the subject. Books and journals on religious topics are usually classified in the 200s.
Once you have identified a few books on your topic by doing a subject search in the online catalog, you can browse the shelf under the same general number(s) to find related works. For example, if you know that the book, An Angel Directs the Storm: Apocalyptic Religion and American Empire, by Michael Northcott, has the call number 261.70973 N814a, you can go to the shelf in the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library Library or the Main Bookstacks and look at other books with the same Dewey stem. However, depending on their focus, other books on this topic may be classified under other numbers, so you'll need to have a few call numbers in mind when you go to browse the shelves.
Ebook Collections
In addition to the 13 million+ printed books available to you here in the Library, we also have a rapidly growing collection of digitized books.
- Internet Archive BooksOver 20,000 digitized books. Most of the books in the collection were published before 1923.
- Google BooksMassive searchable database of scanned books, journals, and magazines. Full text of out-of-copyright material and excerpts of copyright-protected material provided by publishers. Keyword searching (resulting in page references) of copyright-protected material.
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryOver 17 million books, periodicals, and government documents digitized by Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and research libraries. About 2,500,000 of these works can be read online (because they are public domain works, and therefore freely accessible).
- Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans This link opens in a new windowBased on Charles Evans's American Bibliography. Includes almost every book printed in the United States between 1639-1800. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker This link opens in a new windowBased on Ralph Shaw and Richard Shoemaker's American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801-1819, includes almost every book printed in the United States between 1801-1819. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Afro-Americana Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia This link opens in a new windowOver 12,000 printed works, including books, pamphlets, and broadsides. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new windowBased on Joseph Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana, this collection includes books, pamphlets, and periodicals about the Americas from 1492 to 1868. Includes publications both from the Americas and from elsewhere.
- ACLS Humanities E-BooksAlmost 5,000 book-length works of scholarship in the humanities, with an emphasis on history. Works selected by scholars.
- Pop Culture Universe This link opens in a new window1900-present. Digital collection of over 350 books, including dozens of subject encyclopedias. The collection's design is intentionally "pop", but all titles are from a reputable publisher of reference works. Supports browsing by decade or subject.