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- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Largest, most authoritative English language dictionary. Provides the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, traces the usage of sources, covers words from across the English-speaking world including etymological analysis, variant spellings, pronunciation, and provides uses of words from over 2.5 million quotations.
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Library of Congress Catalog offers the largest collection of books among libraries in the US. A great place to discover the latest books. Try searching: "Dracula and Stoker"
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Project Gutenberg offers "the world's great literature... with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired."
Search Examples
Keywords
A significant word or concept. We often begin our searching using a keyword. Keyword search is the most flexible way to research a topic in databases. Below are some examples of keyword searches and keyword combinations--
Class and young adult literature
Young adult literature
Fantasy fiction
Young adult literature AND mental health
Fantasy fiction AND identity
(Young adult literature OR children's literature)
(Novels OR Fiction)
Subjects
Subject words are "controlled vocabulary" assigned by information organizers to include similar expressions under a "unified" subject word.
While researchers do not assign subject words, they can easily discover subject words in the description of a book or article (if subject words are provided by a database). Here are some examples of Subjects that you can discover in OneSearch--
Young adult literature
Young adult literature -- study and teaching
Young adult literature -- history and criticism
Youth -- books and reading
Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Library of Congress Classification OutlineThe Library of Congress (LC) classification scheme attempts to organize knowledge into the A-Z classes. Most U.S. libraries follow this scheme to organize / provide access to books. Take a look at this beautiful architecture: the letters and titles of the main LC classes.
Search Strategies
Be Elastic & Be Specific.
Both are necessary. Research is a fluid, creative and elastic process. For example, you can narrow down your topic when it is too broad or when you find too much information. Using specific words can make your search results more precise. You can expand, refine, and revise your search words when you do not find enough information or the right information. Always, pay attention to new keywords and subject words that you will discover in the book or article citation/description. Add them to your notes. You may be surprised that your essay will miraculously grow from your words, thoughts, and notes over time.
The following techniques will help you create more effective search statements in computerized database searching.
- AND -- To narrow down/refine a topic by combining keywords
Young adult fiction AND censorship
Young adult fiction AND sexism
- OR -- Nested search to include synonyms or related words
(phobia OR fear)
(xenophobia OR nationalism)
(gothic OR horror)
- NOT--Use not to exclude a keyword
Young adult literature NOT children's literature
- " " -- Use double quotes to search topic as a phrase
"mental health"
"queer theory"
- * -- Use the asterisk (also called wildcard) to truncate words so you can retrieve letters after the word stem
multicultur* -> multicultural, multiculturalism
sex* -> sexes, sexism, sexual, sexuality