Subject Headings are special search phrases used by librarians to identify a major topic. They are sometimes difficult to guess, but through keyword searching you can find the appropriate subject heading.
W&M Libraries has an Outstanding collection on Atlantic History, but there are always going to be books we don't own. Use WorldCat & Interlibrary Loan to order books we don't currently have in the collection:
The W&M Library looks small from outside, but the collection of books is massive (part of the library is underground, and we use high-density shelving).
Start with your topic. Examples:
Haitian Massacre (1937) is represented in Dominican historical memory
FBI surveillance of MLK and how it effected his strategy for the civil rights movement and his career
Race and racism in sorority life at William and Mary.
Importance of diversity in education, specifically in faculty & the impact on student mentoring
utilization of black bodies specifically in the context of grave robbing by medical institutions in need of cadavers.
Black Wall Street incident of 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma
the role of race in news coverage of Colin Kaepernick kneeling
Identify the key Nouns:
Haitian Massacre (1937) is represented in Dominican historical memory
FBI surveillance of MLK and how it effected his strategy for the civil rights movement and his career
Importance of diversity in education, specifically in faculty & the impact on student mentoring
utilization of black bodies specifically in the context of grave robbing by medical institutions in need of cadavers.
Black Wall Street incident of 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma
the role of race in news coverage of Colin Kaepernick kneeling
Databases are very bad with verbs, adjectives, and ideas: "effected" "impact" "influence" are not great search terms, nor are relationships. It has to be implied. Example "role of racism in shaping higher education" would need to be searched as Racism AND Higher Education, with the relationship implied.
Try simple searches first. Don't overwhelm the catalog.
"Haitian Massacre" AND Dominican AND memory
You may find the Dominicans use a different term for this event.
FBI AND surveillance AND "Martin Luther King"
"impact" is not a great term in databases. Add AND "Civil Rights Movement" if results are too broad
Diversity AND education AND "student mentoring"
You can add AND faculty if it's too broad.
Black OR "black bodies" AND ("grave robbing" OR "grave robbers") AND medical
You probably don't need to add AND cadavers
"Black Wall Street" AND Tulsa
To narrow the search, add AND Topic
("news coverage" OR "media coverage") AND Kaepernick AND (race OR racism)
You probably don't need to add kneeling
DON'T GET TOO EXCITED! These searches will only get you started, and you've a lot of digging ahead still.
When looking at the first batch of results, consider:
You will need to play around with the search terms to find Exactly what you want.
If you already found books you like on your topic, search them in the catalog to see what subject headings they use. This will point you to new books!
