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Middle East & Islamic 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 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 and need only a few books. 

For a comprehensive subject search, search with subject headings as well as keywords.

Searching Omni

Start with a keyword search, but expect to revise it. 

Keyword Searching TIPS

 

Search Technique  

What It Does

quotation marks

Searches for exact phrase

Truncation *

Searches for all forms of a word

Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)

Lets you broaden or narrow your search

 

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. For example:

(economy OR economics) AND Yemen

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

Israel--Social conditions--20th century
Pyramids--Egypt
Syria--Antiquities
Mass media and women--Middle East

Click on the subject heading to do a new search or use words from the subject heading to modify your keyword search.

Examples of subject headings relating to Middle Eastern Studies:

Arab-Israeli conflict
Iran--Economic conditions
Israel and the diaspora
Jerusalem--Politics and government
Jewish-Arab relations
Middle East--Geography
Persian Gulf War, 1991

Cambridge Histories Online allows access to the texts of the Cambridge Histories series which you can search or browse by topic. These titles are relevant for undergraduates, graduates, lecturers and researchers.