Search Omni, the library catalogue, to find literary works, books about literary works and authors (e.g. books of criticism, biographies, bibliographies, concordances, literary glossaries, dictionaries, and encyclopedias).
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 |
When searching OMNI for books, use the facets located on the search results screen, to limit your search results to books & ebooks. Also can limit search to book and e-books in Advanced Search. For example:
Other searches to try:
speculative AND fiction AND indigenous
"speculative fiction" AND indigenous
"science fiction" AND (canad* OR "first nations" OR indigenous OR native)
indigenous AND futurism
"indigenous futurism"
"magic realism" AND indigenous
To find books concerning a particular mode or genre in a particular language or period, search the mode or genre by subject heading. This will give you a list of more specific subject headings from which you can choose. Some examples include:
Science fiction Canadian
Science fiction American
Indian gays in literature
Indigenous peoples in literature
Two spirit people in literature
Sexual minorities in literature
Gays in literature
Indigenous peoples in literature
Fantasy fiction Canadian
Native peoples in literature
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction Canadian
Canadian literature Indian authors
Canadian literature Indian authors History and criticism
Canadian literature Metis authors
Canadian literature Native authors
Short stories Canadian Indian authors
Browsing the library shelves is another strategy for locating information on a topic.
Most books related to Canadian Literature (English) are located in the call number range PS8001-PS8649 on the 4th floor of Stauffer Library. French Canadian literature can be found in the PS9000-PS9379 range.
Use the following call numbers as a a guide.
PS8001-PS8649 Canadian Literature
PS8001-8039 General
PS8041-8057 Canadian literary criticism
PS8061-8227 History & criticism of Cdn literature
PSPS8111-8117 By period
PS8129-8133 By region...
PS8139-8227 Special forms
PS8139-8159 Poetry
PS8179-8199 Prose and prose fiction
PS8231-8379 Collections of literature
PS8400-8649 Individual authors
PS8323.S3 Science Fiction collections
Authors are classified by name and period of productivity and then further classified by biography and criticism.