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Classics and Archaeology

Locating Print Books

Queen’s University Library uses the Library of Congress (LC) classification system.

For the most part, material for the study of classical antiquity is located in the LC classes CN Ancient Epigraphy; PA Classical Philology and Literature; and DE, DF, and DG, for general Mediterranean, Greek, and Roman history respectively.

Beyond Queen's Library

Books that are not available at Queen's but are available at one of our partner libraries can be requested directly through Omni. To request an item in Omni, login to your library account and perform a search in the Queen's University + Omni Libraries search. 

Physical items can be requested and delivered to Queen’s University Library for pickup. Articles and book chapters can be requested and delivered to your Queen's University email.

For more information, please refer to the Request Materials webpage.

Books

A good way to start your research is to search for books, book chapters and eBooks on your topic.

Search Omni by any field (Author/Creator, Title, Subject, Keyword or Call Number) to find books. Use the filters in Omni to refine your search results, by format (e.g. books & eBooks). The filters are located along the left-hand side of the search results screen.

Basic Search Tips

The default search in Omni is simple or Basic Search.

  • To find a specific known item, search by title or author.  

Keyword Searching

  • To find information about a topic, use a keyword search. Think of the focus (or key) words that best describe your topic. 
  • Enter one or more of your topic keywords into the Omni search box.
  • Think of synonyms, additional keywords, alternate spellings, broader or narrower terms that can be used in your searches.

Boolean Operators

  • Basic search supports the use of Boolean operators: AND, OR or NOT. They must be entered in uppercase.

AND is used to combine keywords representing different concepts. Using AND ensures that all search terms are present in the results. 

  • Aristophanes AND comedy

OR is used to combine related/synonymous keywords. 

  • comedy OR humour

To search for a specific phrase, type quotation marks around the phrase.  

  • "ancient theatre"

Truncation is the process of adding an asterisk '*' to the end of a root word to get different variations on the word.

  • myth* for myth, myths, mythology, mythologies

Question mark for single character wildcard.

  • wom?n for woman, women

Use brackets to group terms. When you have more than on Boolean operator in a search statement, it is necessary to separate them with brackets. Operators enclosed in the brackets are performed first followed by the operators outside of the brackets.

  • "ancient Greece" AND (humour OR comed*)

Advanced Search

Use the Advanced Search option for more precise searching.

Using the drop-down options within the Advanced Search screen you can:

  • Limit your search to specific fields and/or a combination of fields (Author, Title, Subject, Call number).
  • Specify that your search words must be contained in the search field ("contains", "contains exact phrase" or "starts with").
  • Modify by Resource Type such as books and eBooks or articles. 
  • Select the language you prefer.
  • Set a date range.

Subject Headings

When you find relevant results, note the subject headings assigned. Refining your search using the same subject heading terminology may yield more precise results. 

Tip: If you find a record in Omni for a relevant book, check the subjects assigned to it to find the headings that best match your topic.

Examples of relevant subject headings include:

  • Alexander the Great, 356-323 B.C.
  • Art, Etruscan
  • Excavations (Archaeology) -- Greece
  • Greece--Civilization--To 146 B.C.
  • Homer--Political and social views
  • Mythology, Roman
  • Rome--Civilization
  • Women--Greece--Drama

Finding E-books

There are many different ways to find e-books at Queen's. Most collections have individual book records in Omni, but you can also search e-book collections directly through searching through the Database page.