Library and Information Research:
Social Sciences

Assignment #3:

Subject Headings
&
Search Strategies

Name:

Proposed Final Project Topic:

1.

Write a one-sentence description of your proposed topic:
(e.g. I want to study the role of religion and family in Chicano communities.)

2.

From this sentence, break down your topic into 2 or 3 key concepts and list the them below:

concept 1	concept 2	concept 3
(e.g. religion	family	Chicano)

3.

For each concept listed above, list any synonyms (words or phrases) you can think of that convey these concepts:

concept 1	concept 2	concept 3
(e.g. Catholicism	families	Mexican-American
Protestant	parents	Latino
The Church	community	Hispanic)

4.

Look in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH--big red books) for the following terms and fill in the requested information:

a. vegetarianism--what call number area might I browse in for books on the nutritional aspects of vegetarianism?

b. social ethics--what is a narrower term?

c. civil rights demonstrations--what is a term that is not used?

5.

Using LCSH, look up terms you think will be most useful for your topic. List them below:

Also list natural languge/keywords for each one of your concepts. List these below:

Look at the Boolean Machine page to consider how the concepts will intersect when using boolean operators (And, OR, NOT).  

6.

Do a subject search in the MINERVA Library Catalog using one of the terms you found on your topic in LCSH.

a. What title(s) did you find? (List one that looks appropriate. If you didn't find a title that looks good, try a different subject heading.)

b. What subject headings are listed for that book? (Be sure to look at the full record.)

7.

Do a keyword search using the one of the terms appropriate to your topic.

a. What term did you use?

b. What did you find? How many entries?

8.

Continue searching MINERVA for more titles on your topic.

a. What additional terms have you identified that might be appropriate?

b. List two titles (with call numbers and locations) from the MINERVA database on your topic.

9.

Now search MINERVA (the University at Albany system catalog).

a. List two titles (with call numbers and locations) from the MINERVA database on your topic.

10.

What questions do you have?