LATS 470: Latinx Migrations: Stories and Histories

Start in the library catalog

• Do a few keyword searches in the library catalog
• Once you find a relevant book, click on the Details link and look at the Subjects to find similar items
• When you click on a subject, it will run a new search on that topic

Browse the shelves
Books are organized on the shelves according to topic, so once you find a promising source, you can:

• use the Virtual Browse link in the library catalog to see other possibly relevant books around it
• or go to the shelves to browse physically

Use ORs and parentheses to combine synonyms or multiple topics

(oil OR petroleum OR crude)

(antibiotic OR antiviral)

(woman OR girl OR female)

Truncate roots of important words* to find plurals and more

perform* (searches for perform, performance, performativity, etc.)

cell$

pregnan!

Insert a “wild card” [*?$!] to catch words with different spellings

wom?n

coloni#ation

odo$r

*Truncation and wild cards work differently in different databases. Check the help section of the database to learn what symbol to use and how to properly use it.

Combine concepts with AND to find more relevant sources

picasso AND Africa

internet AND privacy

bedrock AND Massachusetts AND hydrology

Use “double quotes” to find exact phrases

"rock art"

“African diaspora”

“invertible matrix”

Use proximity searching* to find words near each other

women NEAR violence

progressive NEAR/10 tax

"global warming" NEAR/20 "sea level"

*Proximity searching works differently in different databases.  Check the help section of the database to learn how to properly use it.