SOCL 365: Illness Narratives (Beard): Books

When you don't have a particular title of a book in mind, begin by searching for a key term about your research topic. Once you've found some books on your topic, look at the subject headings for those books. You can follow the subject heading links in the catalog to find similar books, or you can use the terms in the subject headings to revise your search strategies.

For example, if you were researching deafness in children, you might come across the following subject headings:

Deafness in children -- Case studies.

Deaf children -- Interviews.

You can search the Holy Cross Library Catalog when you have a specific title in mind or when you are searching for books on a particular subject. If Holy Cross does not have books that you need for your research, try exploring WorldCat to search the collections of other libraries. If you come across a title you'd like to read, you can submit an interlibrary loan request.

Books at Dinand are arranged by Library of Congress Call Number.

  Video: How to Read Call Numbers

• Reference books are located in the Main Reading Room. 
• Call numbers A through G are on the upper (Mezzanine) level. 
• Call numbers H through Z are on the lower (Ground) level, with a few exceptions. Call numbers beginning with "M" are located in the Music Library and “Q, R, S, T” are in the Science Library.
• For this class, you may find that a number relevant books have call numbers beginning with H because this is the call number range for books related to social sciences .
• You may find some relevant titles are in the Science Library if your topic is related to health and medicine.
• Depending on your topic, you may find books in several different call number areas, but many of the sociology books are in the "H" section. 

When you go into the Stacks to look for a book, remember to look at books nearby on the shelves. You will often come across additional relevant titles when you do this.