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CORE 176: Amish & Mennonites in American History (Gollner Spring 2024)

Searching in the catalog

Searching the library catalog is one of the best ways to find solid academic books, ebooks and journal articles about your topic. However it isn't always easy to find what you are looking for on the first try. Here are some tips and tricks that might help you out.

1. Find the subject heading that best fits your topic.

Searching for "9/11" won't get you a whole lot of good results. However searching for su:September 11 Terrorist Attacks (2001) will get you much better ones. To find the subject term that best fits your topic, experiment with different keywords and once you find one item that appears to be close to your topic, click on it and open up Description. There you will see the subject headings associated with that item. Click on one that looks helpful and it will take you to a search of just items connected to that specific topic.

2. Use interlibrary loan to expand your search

Just because our library doesn't have immediate access to a book or article you are interested in, doesn't mean you can't get it. If you find a book or article that interests you, use the Request Item button to ask for us to get you a copy.

Helpful books available at the Good Library

Helpful books available at the Mennonite Historical Library

For this project, you will want to search both the Good Library catalog and the MHL catalog.

You can find books from the Mennonite Historical Library here: https://goshenmhl.on.worldcat.org/discovery

Additionally once you have a topic in mind, you are welcome to reach out to Joe Springer, the Curator at the MHL. He has a wealth of knowledge on these topics and is a great way to find additional sources or even ideas on how to shape your topic. Email him to set up an appointment.