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HI 324 Medieval Culture

History Personal Librarian

CRAIG GABLE

Personal Librarian
for Students in
History


Call Me
 440-449-4080


E-mail Me
 craig.gable@ursuline.edu


Visit Me (first floor, BL8)
make an appointment

 

Reference Books

Why Use a Reference Book?

Reference books are designed to provide you with an introduction to a given topic. In other words, they serve as a starting point for students who don't already possess a foundational knowledge of that topic. Though reference books don't necessarily get cited in research papers, they certainly can play an important role in helping you early on in your research process.

Accessing Online Library Resources

Off-Campus Access Problems? 

If you're having problems with off-campus access to an online library resource (chiefly research databases, e-books, and streaming video), the most common reason is that it doesn't recognize you as an authorized user. An easy way to fix this problem is to go to the MyUrsuline webpage and log in. Then continue to use that same browser when accessing library resources.

Get Library Help!

Get Library Help

Phone   Call: 440-449-4202
Cell Phone

  Text: 440-306-7068

Chat   Chat with a Librarian
 
Mail   Email a Librarian
People   Make an Appointment
Open Book  Book a Study Room

Finding Books in the Library Catalog

 

FINDING BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY CATALOG

 

SEARCHING IN THE CATALOG

In the library catalog you can search for books in multiple ways, including using a keyword, an author, a subject, and/or a title. All of these will produce different results in the catalog.

 

KEYWORD SEARCHING

A keyword search produces results for any item in the catalog whose record includes the word or phrase you are searching. So, for example, if your search term is medieval history, you may get results with that phrase in the title, table of contents, summary, etc. Keyword searches are therefore the broadest way to search, oftentimes resulting in many--sometimes too many--results.

 

SUBJECT HEADINGS

College library catalogs usually use Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH) as a means for classifying content. In comparison with keywords, subject headings (which you'll see in each catalog record as clickable links) constitute a highly regimented and consistent system of organization.

If you know an exact subject heading for a given topic, you can conduct a subject search in the library catalog. Here are some examples of Library of Congress subject headings you can use when conducting this kind of catalog search:

  • Middle Ages
  • Civilization, Medieval
  • Europe -- History -- 476-1492
  • Middle Ages in literature
  • Middle Ages in motion pictures
  • Chivalry
  • Crusades
  • Vikings
  • Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism
  • Medicine, Medieval
  • Philosophy, Medieval
  • Science, Medieval
  • Feudalism
  • Art, Medieval
  • Women -- History -- Middle Ages, 500-1500

 

If you find a book to use that's in the library's circulating collection (2nd floor), you might also want to browse those books on the shelf next to it since they might be on the same general topic.

Reference Books

 

SELECTED LIBRARY REFERENCE BOOKS

 

IN THE LIBRARY (2nd floor)

 

ONLINE

Selected Books

 

SELECTED CIRCULATING LIBRARY BOOKS (2nd floor)

 

Selected E-Books

 

SELECTED LIBRARY E-BOOKS