Try the BU Library Search for
....Subject: Women -- Africa, Sub-Saharan.....
... Women AND Africa AND leader*...
...woman AND ruler AND Africa ... [try replacing Africa with more specific keywords for your topic]
Begin with a keyword search and try various combinations. How you search can determine the number of results:
For example: “Winnie Mandela”
Using and narrows the search: Winnie Mandela AND apartheid
Using or broadens the search. : (Winnie OR Nelson) AND Mandela This search includes results for either Winnie or Nelson.
Winnie AND Nelson AND Mandela is a narrower search. It would show you results that mention both Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela. If it mentions only Winnie Mandela, it will be excluded from the results.
The BU Library Search also has many facets that can be used to refine your search in various ways.
For example, try searching only in the author field: Author search for Winnie Mandela
Using the options on the left-hand column, you could further limit your results in various way, for example choosing only article or using the date slider to see only material published before 1994.
The results provide a breakdown of books and articles on that topic and other similar subject headings you might want to investigate.
**** For more details see the Power Searching Guide****
There are several ways you can obtain books or articles that we do not own. These include:
WorldCat Discovery. WorldCat Discovery allows current BU faculty, staff, and students to borrow books directly from other Boston Library Consortium libraries. Turnaround time is approximately three working days. (How to use WorldCat Discovery)
Interlibrary Loan. Interlibrary Loan services allow current BU faculty, staff, and students to request books, articles, book chapters, and other materials that our ILL staff will obtain from other libraries. Books generally take 2-4 weeks to arrive; articles are generally delivered electronically within 1-2 days.
ILL online request forms for all patrons except those affiliated with the Schools of Law and Medicine
Law Library's interlibrary loan page for Law School affiliates
Alumni Medical Library’s ILL form for Medical School affilliates
For general inquires to the Interlibrary Loan office, please call (617) 353-3706 or email ILLMML@bu.edu.