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European History

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

 

To find books by a particular author/person, search Omni by author:

 
rousseau jean jacques 
 
To find books about a particular author/person, search Omni by subject heading:
 
rousseau jean jacques 
 
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.
 
france AND revolution AND (symbolism OR art)
 
Select useful titles and look at the full record for subject headings.
 
Symbolism in art--France
France--History--Revolution, 1789-1799--Art and the revolution
Art--Political aspects--France
Revolutions in art
 
To find general information on a country:
 
France--Intellectual life
France--Politics and government--1789-1799
Italy--History
  
To find a particular time period:
 
France--History--Restoration--1841-1830
France--History--Louis XIV 1643-1715
Germany--Social conditions--1933--1945
 
To find an event:
 
Enlightenment
Treaty of Versailles (1919)
 
To find an individual:
 
Voltaire
France--History--Louis XV, 1715-1774
 
To find primary sources on a topic, look for the subdivision sources following a subject heading or do a keyword search (preferably a guided keyword search by subject):
 
Spain--History--Sources
Spain AND "civil war" AND sources
 

E-Book Packages

The Library subscribes to a number of e-book packages which can be accessed via Databases. Packages that are of interest to history students are:
 
Provides full-text access to major works in American, European and Middle Eastern history. Topics covered include many aspects of history plus archaeology, area studies, art, folklore, literature, music, philosophy, political science, religion, and women's studies. Records for these books should be in Omni.
 
Historical reference compendium allows access to the texts of the Cambridge Histories series. Search or browse by topic. Relevant for undergraduates, graduates, lecturers and researchers.
 
A collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
 
Oxford Scholarship Online                        
offers full-text access to scholarly publishing in 20 subjects from around the world, including History.,
 
Provides access to about 600,000 electronic books (ebooks) Prom a wide variety of publishers.

Oxford History of Modern Europe

 
A series of volumes on specific countries or topics. Search Omni for "Oxford history of modern Europe" to find them all. Some are available online, others only in print.