If you have a citation for a book, and you want to obtain a copy of that book, you first need to determine whether the University of Illinois Library owns a copy of the book. To determine whether we own a copy, you will use the Library Catalog:
The Library Catalog will include records for both ebooks and print books, so if we have a copy of the book as an ebook, you will a record for the ebook in the Library Catalog.
If the Library owns a copy of the book, but the book is already checked out to another patron, or if the Library does not own a copy of the book, then you will next search the I-Share Catalog to see if the book is available to you through I-Share:
If the book is not available through I-Share, then you will use your complete citation to request a copy through interlibrary loan:
To find books, begin with the University of Illinois Library Catalog:
If you can't find your book in our Library Catalog, you should next check to see if it's available from an I-Share Library:
After you have explored the books available to you here at the University of Illinois, and also at other I-Share libraries, you will want to expand your search using WorldCat:
If you find a book in WorldCat that you would like to use for your research, you can request it through interlibrary loan:
Subject headings are used to collocate records for works on a common subject under a single, standardized heading.
The subject headings used in the Library Catalog are standardized Library of Congress terms, which may be “subdivided” (made more specific) by geographic area, chronological period, genre, or sub-topic. The language of subject headings is not at all intuitive or natural, so you shouldn’t hesitate to ask a librarian for help in finding the correct subject headings.
A good way to identify subject headings for a topic is to do a keyword search in the Library Catalog using terms you think describe the topic, in order 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.
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 subject search, 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.
You can also use subject headings to find primary sources in the Library Catalog. Use the Library Catalog's advanced search option and include one or more of these Library of Congress Subject Heading form subdivisions in your search:
In order to browse a menu of subject headings in the Library Catalog, you must use the Catalog's "Browse Search":
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.
Like most documents, books can be either primary or secondary sources, depending on the nature of your research questions.
Any books published in the time period you are studying can be used as primary sources in principle. To find them in library catalogs and digitized book collections, search by date of publication (for example, here are books about hippies published in the 1970s).
Primary source documents, whether they were published or unpublished at the time, are often collected and published as books at a later time. To find these kinds of books, use one or more of the following Library of Congress subject terms in your search:
correspondence
sources
diaries
personal narratives
interviews
speeches
documents
archives
Here's a sample search for nineteen sixties sources.