image courtesy of John David Hanrath
Like anything that involves human beings, libraries have their biases. Our shelving system makes assumptions about what categories are important and even what is worthy of being a category. Likewise, the subject headings catalogers and indexers use may reflect outdated or even offensive terminology. Categorizing and naming are highly subjective cultural practices.
Books are shelved in general subject categories using the Library of Congress classification system. You may want to supplement your use of the catalog with browsing shelf areas for your topic. Below is a brief listing of some of the subject locations in the field of anthropology.
Books are shelved in general subject categories using the Library of Congress classification system. You may want to supplement your use of the catalog with browsing shelf areas for your topic. Below is a brief listing of some of the subject locations in the field of environmental studies.
Books are shelved in general subject categories using the Library of Congress classification system. You may want to supplement your use of the catalog with browsing shelf areas for your topic. Below is a brief listing of some of the subject locations in the field of sociology.
In most databases you'll either see a PDF file or a "find it" link or button. By clicking on "find it" you'll either be led to the article in another database or you'll get an opportunity to request it from another library. Usually it only takes a day or two to arrive by email.
You can also request books we don't have in our library, but it takes a little longer for them to arrive.
Citations are a map of scholarly conversations over time. Tracing cited works is an effective way to tap into conversations and find great material that may otherwise be hard to find.
To go back in time -
To go forward in time -
Type the author and title of the book or article into Google Scholar. Click on "cited by" to see who has cited it since it was published.
Some library databases also offer this feature. The most comprehensive citation database is the Web of Science. Try a cited author search to get started.
