21H.931 Seminar in Historical Methods

Finding Books

Search the following library catalogs to identify books written by and about your author or subject.

FINDING BOOKS AT MIT

Barton, the MIT Libraries' Catalog
http://libraries.mit.edu/barton
Barton includes books and journal titles owned by all of the MIT Libraries. Search here first!

You can use Barton for both primary and secondary sources. It does not list journal articles (we’ll get to finding those later).

Using Barton: Keywords vs. Subjects
Keywords are words normal people would think of. They can appear ANYWHERE in the record (title, author, subject, publisher, notes, etc., etc.).

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are “officially sanctioned” by the Library of Congress; you will never guess them on your own. They appear in the “Subject” section of a Barton record.

You can use keywords or titles to figure out subject headings (and remember: use this same strategy with other catalogs and databases!).

• For example: Do a "Keyword" search for "Japanese American internment." You'll see the relevant LCSH subject heading, "Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945."
• Do a "Title begins with" Barton search for War Without Mercy. You'll see that one possible LCSH subject to search is "World War, 1939-1945 -- Pacific Area."

For more on keyword vs. subject searching, see the Information Navigator.

Using Barton: Basic vs. Advanced Search
Basic search is good for title, author, and keyword searching. With advanced search, you can combine searches and limit by language, format, and library.

FINDING BOOKS OUTSIDE OF MIT

WorldCat
http://libraries.mit.edu/get/worldcat
WorldCat includes books owned by libraries around the world; it's useful for the serious researcher who needs to go beyond the scope of the MIT Libraries. WorldCat indicates which libraries in the Boston area own the book you need.

HOLLIS
http://hollis.harvard.edu/
Harvard's online catalog.

Google BookSearch
http://books.google.com/
Searches the full text of books scanned from publisher and library partners. Full text is mostly only available for older books (pre-1922), but TOCs are usually available for all books.

Boston Library Consortium (BLC) Libraries' Catalogs
http://www.blc.org/library_user_services/mem_cats.html
http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/catalogs/virtcat.html
MIT students are eligible to check books out from other BLC libraries (see Get Full Text for more information). You can search the BLC's "Virtual Catalog" (use login name "guest")--which includes all Boston-area member libraries except BC, Brandeis, and MIT--to identify additional titles. Or search the catalogs separately.

THERE'S MORE TO RESEARCH THAN LIBRARY TOOLS!
We love library tools, but sometimes informal approaches work better. You can get leads from footnotes and bibliographies in books and articles, or use call numbers to browse the stacks or Barton for similar books.