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AOM 30: Books

A guide to resources in the Merced College Library.

Books with background material in REFERENCE

Search the Book Catalog

Try searching the catalog for the subject

Privacy , Right of OR Social Media

There are many ways to search for print and e-books in the catalog. Books are assigned a subject heading, like a tag. Y

Don't forget--the catalog does not look in the index that is found at the back of print books. If a title looks like it could have your topic, make sure to pull the book to check the index.

The catalog does usually list the table of contents. When you find an interesting title, click on the title, and then click on the link that says "Catalog record" to find out more information, like the table of contents, which lists the chapters, and subject terms. You can click on the subject terms to find other books that have these same headings.

 

Book Search Tips

The catalog has a drop down menu with different options to search the catalog. Here are the different options and how they work.

Keyword: when you search this way, you are telling the catalog to look for the words you typed anywhere in a book's record--the title, author, publication place, table of contents, subject terms, etc.

Title: when you search this way, you are telling the catalog to look for the words you typed in the title section in a book's record. It is best to use this search when you have a specific title in mind.

Author: when you search this way, you are telling the catalog to look for the words you typed in the author section in a book's record. To search for books written by a specific author, type their name like this: lastname, firstname

Subject: when you search this way, you are telling the catalog to look for the words you typed in the subject term section in a book's record. Subject terms are very specific labels, like hashtags used in Twitter and Instagram. If you don't know the specific subject term, one way to find them is to open up a book record of something you think relates to your topic. When you find an interesting book, click on the title, and then click on the link that says "Catalog Record." In the record, there will be subject terms that describe the contents of that particular book. You can click on any of the subject terms to find other books that use those same subject terms.

If you are looking for books about a specific person (not written by the person), the subject term is their name. Type their name like this: lastname, firstname, and tell the catalog to search for the name as a subject in the drop down menu.