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Canadian Studies

Finding Books

 
Search Omni to find books, journals, videos and other materials owned by the Library.  You can search by keywords, author, title or subject headings.
 
To find a specific known item, search by title or author.  To find books on a topic, either try a subject or keyword search.

Subject Headings vs Keyword Searching

Subject headings allow you to search the library catalogue for resources on a particular author or topic and are often more productive than keyword searches. 
 
Keyword searches work best if you have multiple concepts or topics. Think of the words that best describe your topic and then connect them with the boolean operators AND OR NOT. Use the results to find relevant titles and identify assigned subject headings for your topic in order to find similar books. 
 

To find books on a topic, use a keyword search if you do not know the correct subject heading for a topic. Think of the focus (or key) words that describe your topic.

trudeau AND sovereignty
"sustainable development" AND rural AND canada

Select useful titles and look at the full record for subject headings.

Nationalism--Canada
Canada--English-French relations
Canada--Politics and government--1945-
Sustainable development--Canada
Quality of life--Canada
Canada--Rural conditions

Examples of subject headings relating to Canadian Studies include:

Federal government--Canada
Canada--Foreign relations--1945--
Canada--History--20th century
Sociology, Urban--Canada
Youth--Canada
Canadian literature--Black authors
Social capital (Sociology)--Canada
Universities and colleges--Environmental aspects--Canada
Violence--Canada
Homeless youth--Canada

To find bibliographies on a topic, look for the subdivision bibliography following a subject heading.

Reference books--Canada--Bibliography
Minorities--Canada--Bibliography

 

Special Collections

The Edith and Lorne Pierce Collection of Canadiana, which is a comprehensive collection on Canadian literature and history is housed in Special Collections (Douglas Library)

The collection is particularly strong in discovery and exploration narratives, Loyalists, the War of 1812, the opening of the West, local history, Arctica, native peoples, drama, and Canadian literature