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On this page are the following tips and tricks for using the library search box like an expert:
The default search box is the Simple Search. However, there's also an Advanced Search. It looks like this:
Notice that the dropdown menus let you connect your search terms with "AND," "OR," and "NOT." You can also type "AND," "OR," or "NOT" into a search box, which lets you construct searches such as this:
The asterisks find all possible suffixes of the root word. For example, feminis* finds "feminist" or "feminists" or "feminism" or "feminisms."
In plain English, the example above means Find items that contain words starting with "feminis" AND contain any of the following: words starting with "art" or words starting with "paint" or words starting with "sculpt."
Every library item is tagged with subject terms that tell you what the item is about. They look like this:
Clicking on one of these subject terms will start a new search. This new search will find all the things tagged with that term, and only those things.
Will a subject term find every item that we have on that subject? No. The reason why one term won't find every item is that different databases use different words to describe the same thing. One database might use "Painting, Italian," and another might use "Painting -- Italy."
But, that's a problem with the databases. Library books don't have that problem. The library books are all tagged using standardized subject terms, as decided by the Library of Congress, which means that once you find one book tagged with a subject term, you can trust that term to find every book we have on the subject.
At the top of every search page is a link to the Browse feature. It looks like this:
The Browse feature lets you view lists of books that the library owns -- but, not just lists of titles of books! No, you can also view lists of subjects of books, and that's what makes this feature so useful.
To view a list of subjects, first you need to find a subject term to type in the box. (See above for how to find a subject term.) Then, after you've found a good term, type it in the Browse by Subject box. You'll see something like this:
What's going on here? These are all subject terms, but subject terms often have two parts.
The Browse by Subject feature generates a list of all the subject headings and subject subdivisions in books that Simpson Library owns (including print books and e-books).
The purpose of browsing is open-ended discovery. Try it! You'll discover things you wouldn't even have thought to search for!
Here are some special types of books that you might want to find for Art History research:
Catalogues raisonnés
A catalogue raisonné is a catalogue of all works by a particular artist -- sometimes focusing on all works in a particular medium. To find them in the library, use the Advanced Search. Search for the artist's name in one field, and in the second field, search for "catalogues raisonnes" as a Subject. (You don't need to type the accent mark over the E.)
Exhibition catalogues
To find exhibition catalogs, search the library and add the subject term "Exhibitions" to your search, like this:
On the search results page, limit your results to books (under "Material Type").
In the example above, we're searching for exhibitions of Impressionist art. You can substitute other schools of art, or the names of particular artists, or the titles of particular exhibitions.
Monographs
In the context of art history, a monograph is a book that focuses on one topic only (for example, one artist, or one art movement), instead of being a collection of essays on various topics.
Find monographs by searching the library for the topic and limiting your results to books. It helps to use the official subject term that corresponds to the topic.
Museum catalogues
Use these search terms to find museum catalogs. "Catalogs" is a subject term, so select "Subject" from the drop-down menu on that line. Note the spelling: "Catalogs," not "Catalogues."
If you're searching for catalogues for a particular museum, put the name of that museum in the first box, like this:
On the search results page, limit your results to books (under "Material Type").