Where to Start Your Research

Library of Congress Call Numbers

The books in the Rivers Library here at CSU are arranged by Library of Congress Call Numbers.

This system separates all knowledge into 21 classes, and some are included below.

They are helpful when physically or virtually browsing the library shelves - if you're in the library, take a look at the endcaps on our shelves for more detailed information.

A: General Reference Works

B: Philosophy and Religion

C: Auxiliary Science of History

D - F: History

G: Geography, Anthropology, Folklore

H: Social Sciences

J: Political Science

K: Law

L: Education

M: Music

N: Fine Arts

P: Languages and Literature

Q: Sciences

R: Medicine

S: Agriculture

T: Technology

U: Military Science

V: Naval Science

Z: Bibliography, Library Science, Information Resources (General)

 

Above photo by Engin Akyurt: https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-brown-wooden-book-shelf-2952871/

 

 

Search Tools - Boolean Operators

So, now that you have your keywords you can add to or exclude keywords to focus your search:

Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT

• AND - use AND in between connected search terms to narrow and focus the search, using AND will usually return fewer results
  • For example, search for global warming AND polar bears and the search will return only results that include both search terms

• OR - use OR to search for results that contain alternatives to your search terms, using OR will usually return more results
  • For example, search for global warming OR climate change and the search will return results that include either of these search terms

• NOT - use NOT if there is a search term that you want to exclude from your results
  • For example, search for global warming NOT greenhouse gases if you want to exclude all results that include greenhouse gases

• Note: these operators can be used together
  • For example, search for global warming OR climate change AND polar bears for results that contain global warming and polar bears and also climate change and polar bears

• Quotation marks: place around phrases or words that should show up in results together, such as "global warming". Otherwise, a search will be done for both global by itself and warming by itself.

• Truncation: use an asterisk to search for a term that may have many variations, such as warm*. In this case, all terms that start with warm will be found, including warming, warms, warmer, etc.

Watch the video below for help with this step:

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