ITAL 139CX: Italian Colonialism (Hom, Winter 2023): Finding Books & Book Chapters

UC Library Search is the "discovery tool" that lists all the materials that are held in the entire UC library system and beyond. It includes books, book chapters, journals, maps, videos, journal articles, and more. Think of it as a powerful catalog.

• Use UC Library Search to find books. Sign in with your UCSB NetID when you are prompted so that you get full functionality and availability information.
• If we do not own a particular item you will see a link to Interlibrary Loan in a gray bar across the middle of the page.
• UC Library Search includes articles, but not comprehensively. I recommend also using the Library's article databases to ensure that you are finding everything.
• Results lists are so broad in UC Library Search that you may retrieve unrelated items. Use the tools in the left margin to apply limiters.
• UC Library Search is an excellent tool for finding items that the Library owns, where they are located, and whether they are currently available. It's also the most direct way to access Interlibrary Loan so that you can borrow items from other libraries.

1. If you leave the Material Type on the default All Items, you'll see in the left margin that your results include chapters with ebooks, which are often a rich source to explore. 

2. The asterisk* will bring up alternate endings to the root word:  colonial* will retrieve all records with the word colonial, colonial, colonialism, colonialist, and so forth.

3. Try to think of words that represent the main concepts of your research. You can combine these "keywords" with synonyms or like terms to make sure you are retrieving as many results as possible. Separate these with OR.

4. Keywords also allow you to combine different concepts of your search. Each distinct concept goes on a separate line, connected with the default AND.

5. Use the + sign to add more search terms.