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HI 240: Ordinary Women in World History 1500 to the Present

Finding Books

Begin by searching our catalog.

Keyword searches are very broad and will find every item that mentions the words you searched for. This can be great if you want to browse, but there are other ways to search that can help you narrow down your topic.

Subject headings are the specific way that libraries like to organize works on the same subject, so that way when you find one item, you can easily find all the others with that same subject. Here are some examples you can try searching under subject in the catalog, about women's history:

  • Women -- History
  • Women -- History -- 18th century
  • Housewives -- History
  • Female friendship
  • Women -- Political activity
  • Feminism -- History
  • Courtship
  • Sex role -- History
  • Women spies
  • Women -- Social conditions
  • United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Women.
  • Women slaves
  • Women household employees -- History
  • Women composers
  • Women caregivers -- History
  • Patriarchy

Keep your search terms very general. Do your search different ways for different results. Explore the additional subject terms inside the record each item you look at.

A Note About Names

Sometimes a keyword search is too broad when you are looking up a particular person. Let’s use Ida B Wells as an example.

To get books that are about or by her, put her name in as an author. In both a subject search and an author search with the name of a person, you need to put the last name first: Wells, Ida B.

Click or the blue link with the "official" form of her name. Even if you do not know the full name of a person, the catalog will usually make a suggestion. From this, you will get a list of books or essays that Ida B. Wells was the author of

For a subject search for Dickinson, Emily, some of the results are:

  • Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886.
  • Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886 -- Aesthetics.
  • Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886 -- Relations with men.
  • Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886 -- Political and social views.

These books are about various aspects of Emily Dickinson's life or work.