MONT 151N: Germany's Greening (Schmitz-Burgard)

Print and Electronic Books in the Library

Use the Library Catalog to find print books, print journals, and ebooks in the library's collection. Access the Library Catalog search through the library home page (https://www.holycross.edu/library). Above the search bar, select "Library Catalog." To use more advanced searching options, click on the "My Library Account" link below the search bar to go directly to the catalog, where you can search by keyword, title, subject, or call number. 

Books on the shelves are organized by call number. A call number is an address for a book that tells you where the book is located on the shelf. Call numbers identify different subject areas, so books with similar call numbers will cover similar subjects. This way, when you find a book on the shelf, you know the books around it are on similar topics. When you look up a book in CrossSearch or the Library Catalog, you will see the call number listed with the book details.

You can download a map of Dinand Library below that will show where each call number range is located.

Note: Items with call numbers that start with the letters Q, R, S, and T are located in the O'Callahan Science Library in Swords Hall. You can find a map of the Science Library here.

Subject Headings

The library catalog and databases use subject terms to label or "tag" the main topics in an article or publication. Subject terms are part of a vocabulary unique to the database or publisher and are used to put everything related to one topic under a consistent label to make it easier to find with a search. Knowing the relevant subject terms for your topic can help streamline your search by essentially helping you speak the catalog's language.

When you search in the catalog or a database, you will be able to see the subject terms assigned to your results when you click for more details about a search result. Try using one of those subjects in your next search to see what results it brings back.

Some suggested subject terms for topics related to the environment and nature:

• Nature - effect of human beings on
• Philosophy of nature
• Human ecology
• Nature conservation
• Naturalists
• Biodiversity
• Humboldt, Alexander von,

About Databases

A database is a collection of information that is arranged and tagged for easy searching and retrieval. Think of a database like an online storage container: It stores different publications, journals, books, magazines, and newspapers and makes it possible for you to access them. The library subscribes to over 300 databases that are available for Holy Cross students to use. Visit our A-Z Databases list to see what is available.

General Databases

General databases include information and journals that cover many subjects and academic fields. These can be a good place to start if you’re not sure what subject your topic falls under, if your topic is interdisciplinary and falls under multiple subject areas, if you want to see perspectives from different fields about your topic, or if you simply want to find general information.

To find general databases, go to the A-Z Database List. In the dropdown menu labeled "Subjects," select "_General" and click "Search." You will see a list of general databases, with some highlighted as "Best Bets." Some general databases are listed below.

What is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar is a freely accessible tool for searching scholarly literature through Google's search interface. It is different from a traditional Google search, which searches all content available on the web. Google Scholar includes peer-reviewed academic journals, books, conference papers, theses and dissertations, and other scholarly literature.

Access Google Scholar through the link below. If you are on the Holy Cross campus, Google Scholar will automatically link to your Holy Cross account. To make this happen while using Google Scholar at home, follow these instructions to set up your Scholar account to connect to library resources.

Finding Related Sources in Google Scholar

Google Scholar will allow you to discover articles that cite a specific article. Click the "cited by" link underneath the description of the article. This will bring you to a list of articles that cite the original article you searched for. This can be helpful if you have an article on your topic that is slightly older and you want to see if there is newer research that built off that article's research, or if you want to see how other scholars have interacted with the article you found. 

Limitations of Google Scholar

• It won't find every piece of scholarly literature. Some articles and sources are only located in subscription databases and journals and are not freely discoverable on the web. You should still search other databases available through the library to find more sources.
• Materials in Google Scholar are not always the final published version. Google Scholar pulls some of their results from academics' personal websites or profiles. Some people will post what are called "pre-print" articles. This is the draft copy of an article that the author submitted to a scholarly journal, but it may not reflect the actual published text. If you find an article that is a pre-print or draft copy, use a library database to see if you can find the published version. Pre-print articles may not have completed the peer review process.
• The ranking algorithm may not be reliable. Google Scholar uses citation counts to rank search results. This means that articles that have been cited by other authors more times will appear higher in the results. While citation counts can be helpful, this also means that newer articles and articles from less-cited publishers often don't appear in the first results page. When searching, you want to pay attention to how results are sorted and look beyond the first page of results.

CrossSearch is a one-stop search tool that lets you search most of the informational resources available through the library, including:

• Books, ebooks, archival materials, media and music scores owned by the Holy Cross Libraries.
• Research databases like Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, ARTstor and ProQuest Central.
• E-journal collections like JSTOR and ScienceDirect.
• The Holy Cross digital repository CrossWorks.
• Open Access collections such as HaithiTrust Digital Library

As you can see, CrossSearch looks in many different places and for many different types of sources. In one search, you might see results for academic journal articles, books in the library’s collection, films, newspaper articles, and more. This can be a good place to start if you want to see a broad scope of the resources available on your topic. However, because CrossSearch includes so many types of resources, you might find you need to filter these results more than you would in a more specific database.

CrossSearch is best accessed through the library home page (https://www.holycross.edu/library).

Combine Your Search Terms

You can use the words AND, OR, and NOT to combine your search terms for precise searching. These are called Boolean operators and each one has a different purpose. Using these can help narrow or broaden your search, and can help you combine topics to find more specific results. These strategies can be used in any library catalog or database.

• Use AND to combine your search terms. Each search result with include all of the terms. This can help narrow your results.
• Use OR to find results that contain at least one of your search terms. This can help you broaden your results, and can be good to use if the subject you're searching for is referred to in different ways.
• Use NOT to exclude terms from your results. This can help you narrow your topic by removing a related term that you are not interested in finding sources about.

The Venn diagrams below show how Boolean operators work. The purple highlighted areas represent what the search results will include.