Use the Library Catalog to find books:

Records in the Library Catalog are organized by subject headings. Subject headings 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.

Some examples of Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• African American gays.
• Androgyny (Psychology).
• Bisexuality.
• Censorship.
• Challenged books.
• Cross-dressing.
• Gay liberation movement.
• Gay liberation movement. -- California.
• Gay liberation movement. -- United States -- History.
• Gay men.
• Gay men -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Periodicals.
• Gay men -- United States -- Diaries.
• Gays -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History.
• Gays in popular culture.
• Gays in popular culture -- History -- 20th century.
• Gays in the military -- United States.
• Gays in the military -- United States -- History.
• Gays in the military -- United States -- Interviews.
• Gays -- North America -- Identity.
• Gender identity.
• Gender identity disorders.
• Hermaphroditism.
• Homosexuality.
• Homosexuality -- United States.
• Homosexuality -- United States -- History.
• Homosexuality -- United States -- Interviews.
• Homosexuality -- United States -- Personal narratives.
• Indian gays -- North America -- Social conditions.
• Indian women -- Sexual behavior -- North America.
• Intersex people.
• Intersexuality.
• Intersexuality -- Psychological aspects.
• Intersexuality -- Treatment -- United States.
• Lesbianism.
• Lesbianism -- Archival resources -- Periodicals.
• Lesbians.
• Lesbians -- Biography.
• Lesbians -- North America -- Identity.
• Lesbians -- United States -- Historiography.
• Lesbians -- United States -- History.
• Lesbians' writings, American.
• Paraphilias.
• Pornography.
• Psychosexual disorders.
• Sex (Psychology) -- History -- 20th century.
• Sex and law -- United States -- History.
• Sex change.
• Sex crimes -- United States -- History.
• Sex customs -- United States -- History.
• Sex differences (Psychology)
• Sex instruction.
• Sex instruction -- Popular works.
• Sex instruction -- United States.
• Sex role.
• Sex toys.
• Sexual deviation.
• Sexual disorders.
• Sexual perversion.
• Transgender military personnel -- United States.
• Transgender people.
• Transgender people -- Biography.
• Transgender people -- Case studies.
• Transgender people -- Civil rights.
• Transgender people -- Civil rights -- United States.
• Transgender people -- Comic books, strips, etc.
• Transgender people -- United States.
• Transgender people -- United States -- Diaries.
• Transgender people -- United States -- History.
• Transgender people -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
• Transgender people -- United States -- Interviews.
• Transsexualism.
• Transsexuals.
• Transsexuals-- Personal narratives.
• Transvestism.
• Transvestism-- History.

For many more subject headings relevant to queer history, see the guide to Queer Subject Headings:

As described in a previous page, 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:

• correspondence
• sources
• diaries
• personal narratives
• interviews
• speeches
• documents
• archives
• early works to 1800

In order to browse a menu of subject headings in the Library Catalog, you must use the Catalog's "Browse Search":

You can find ebooks using the Library Catalog (see above), but you can also discover them by doing keyword searches in ebook collections. Below are the main ebook collections for history and gender studies.

For more information on finding ebooks, consult the guide How to Find Ebooks:

Encyclopedias attempt to summarize the state of knowledge in a field of inquiry. A good encyclopedia can be a valuable starting point for your research.

Three online reference collections that students often find useful are:

Other relevant encyclopedias for research in this course:

A bibliography is, in its most literal sense, a list of books. Many students are familiar with bibliographies from writing research papers, where a list of works cited is sometimes called a bibliography. In libraries, bibliographies serve an additional, important function in helping patrons identify books, journal articles, and other library resources. These bibliographies are usually centered on sources about a particular subject, and are often book-length themselves. Some bibliographies run to several volumes. For more information on bibliographies, please see our guide to Bibliography and Historical Research:

A catalog is similar to a bibliography with the difference being that a catalog lists books and other resources available for use or purchase at a specific place, or from a specific person or organization. Examples are library catalogs, catalogs of private collections, and booksellers' catalogs. Some libraries focus on collecting in a specific subject or for specific patrons, and even if you cannot borrow from those libraries you can use their catalogs to identify sources.

Additional bibliographies, catalogs, and guides:

Article indexes are a type of bibliography. The purpose of bibliography is to list documents, usually published documents like books and articles. This type of bibliography is more accurately called "enumerative bibliography". An enumerative bibliography will attempt to be as comprehensive as possible, within whatever parameters established by the bibliographer.

Think of a bibliography as a guide to the source base for a specific field of inquiry. A high quality bibliography will help you understand what kinds of sources are available, but also what kinds of sources are not available (either because they were never preserved, or because they were never created in the first place).

There are many article indexes for finding periodical articles. Because the Library does not subscribe to every journal, and because not all journals are digitized, and because not all digitized journals are available in a single collection, the article indexes provide the only efficient means of identifying relevant articles from across the widest possible range of periodical publications.

Most of these article indexes include a mixture of academic and popular sources (and remember that sometimes the distinction is not clear).

The principal database for identifying journal articles in American history is America: History and LIfe.

Other relevant article indexes for this course include the following:

If you have a book or article in hand, which you know is relevant to your research, then use a citation index to find other works that cited the work in hand. This is a method of bibliographic tracking that moves you forward in time, instead of backward (footnote chasing).

You can also use citation indexes to learn which books and journal articles on a subject have been most frequently cited by other scholars publishing on that subject.