Useful phrases found in subject headings can be used in searches to narrow your results.
Some of these include:
When you search in the library catalog you are conducting what is known as a keyword search. A keyword search will check the terms you enter against almost every word in every part of an item's catalog record. If you're not sure of the exact title, perform a keyword search with the words you know (and the author's last name if you know it). Or, if you're looking for books on a topic, this is often the easiest way to begin searching.
If you know the name of the book you need, perform a Title search in the library catalog. First, click on Advanced Search at the end of the search bar.
Select Title from the first dropdown menu. If you know the exact title, use quotes around phrases for the best results. Otherwise, your search will pull any results with "black" or "noise" in the title.
Use an Author search to find materials by a specific author, composer, or performer. Names can be entered in any configuration (e.g. first last or last, first).
A Subject search is more specific than a keyword search. This will search the subject headings, which are the specific terms assigned to items in the library catalog. Subject headings tell you what an item is about and can be useful in narrowing your search (like l if you want to narrow your results to items about a composer and not items by the composer).
To get books about music and popular culture, use a search like below selecting Subject in the first dropdown. You can split up keywords by each line, or include them all in one line. Remember, quotation marks keep phrases together. The dropdown menus on the right lets you limit your search, so you can search only for Books (as opposed to scores, recordings, etc.).
If your search is not narrow enough, check out the Tweak your results column to the left, especially the Subject section.
Once you find an item that looks promising, click on the title to open the full record. Scroll down to the Details section. You can use the Subjects in the record and words from the summary/table of contents to refine your search if needed.
