Three primary search tools will help you find books:

• Main search box on the library home page 
  • This tool searches a majority of all the Colgate Libraries resources
  • Retrieves books, articles, and more
  • After your initial search, limit to Book / eBook in the left side menu under Content Type
• Classic Catalog
  • This tool searches books and media only
  • Look for link to the Classic Catalog under the Research tab on library home page
• WorldCat
  • This tool searches the catalogs of libraries all over the world (including Colgate's)
  • Use the "My Loan" link in a book record to submit an interlibrary loan request for any book not included in the Colgate Libraries collections
  • The link to the WorldCat database is located under the Research tab on the library home page

Books are shelved by subject using Library of Congress call numbers.

If you find a book on your topic on the shelf, look around! There may be other books on the same shelf that are on the same or a similar topic.

How to Read Call Numbers (Helpful guide from the University of Arizona Libraries)

Source: InfoGuides at George Mason University

Or check out this short (2 mins) video from the Library of Congress:

Source: Northwestern Libraries' Library of Congress Call Numbers

Subject headings are part of a controlled vocabulary specific to a particular set of databases or library catalogs. Subject headings don't always match the language/terminology we use in everyday speech.

A subject heading is only assigned to an item (that is, a book or article) when the item is specifically about that subject. For example, books with "Marriage" in their subject heading are mainly and specifically on the topic of marriage. Thus, subject headings can narrow your search if your results are too broad.

Keywords are simply words that can appear anywhere in the title, subject heading, abstract, or even full text of the article. If you search "marriage" as a keyword, then you can locate books that mention marriage on a single page or have a short chapter addressing marriage.

You can also combine keywords and subject headings in the advanced search in any database to narrow or broaden your results.