Search Tips for the Library Catalog
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****
Browse Books & eBooks on ...
Click on the image to go to see the catalog record.
Try some of these catalog searches as a starting point. Try changing the search, for example by adding a keyword or choosing a more specific geographic description. Within the BU Library Search you can also change your results from Books to Articles or Newspaper Articles using the filter tools.
In place of the general term Africa it is usually helpful to substitute a particular country or region
- . . . Africa -- In mass media
- . . . Cooking, African
- . . . Food security AND gender
- . . . Food crops-- Africa
- . . . Football OR soccer AND Women AND Africa
- . . . Johannesburg AND ethnic*
- . . . Cities and town-- Africa
- . . . Kenya -- Social conditions
- . . . Marrakech AND urban
- . . . Motion pictures -- Africa
- . . . Nollywood
- . . . Love AND Africa
- . . . Sex role-- Africa
- . . . Sex-- Africa
Search for Articles
For a complete list of article databases, see the A-Z Databases.
Search across disciplines
- BU Libraries Search (BULS) This link opens in a new window BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of academic material provided by the library. The material covered by the search includes books, journals, scores, video and audio recordings, and other physical items held by the library. The search also covers ebooks and ejournals owned by the library, as well as online material provided by the library from a variety of sources.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window This database provides full text access to the back issues of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Book reviews are included as well as journal articles. Abstracts are available for some of the articles. Date coverage: earliest issues of each journal up to the most current five years for most publications and to the present for some.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window Project Muse provides digital access to scholarly journals and books in the humanities and social sciences. The scholarly content comes from non-profit scholarly publishers, including university presses and societies. The full text resources include journal articles, book reviews and book chapters.
Arts
- Performing Arts Database This link opens in a new window Performing Arts Database locates citations for writings spanning the disciplines of theatre, dance, and music. These writings chiefly originate in subject-specific trade journals, magazines, and more established scholarly journals. Some full-text is included. Content is international in scope with the majority of the original content having been produced in the United States and Europe. Date coverage: Generally 1990s - present.
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) This link opens in a new window Arts & Humanities Citation Index, accessed via Web of Science, provides comprehensive data on bibliographic and citation information. This database allows a researcher to identify which later articles have cited any particular earlier article, or have cited the articles of any particular author, or have been cited most frequently. Searches notable and significant journals across more than 25 disciplines. Date coverage: 1975 - present.
Humanities and Social Sciences
- Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window Social Sciences Full Text provides access to hundreds of English language journals in the social sciences. About two-thirds of the journals are peer-reviewed. Date coverage: 1983 - present.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window Sociological Abstracts indexes and abstracts the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews. It also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Forty percent of the content is published outside of North America. Date coverage: 1952 - present.
- APA PsycINFO This link opens in a new window PsycInfo provides access to journal articles, books and book chapters, and dissertations that cover the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. It includes material of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work. Date coverage: 1894-
- Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) This link opens in a new window CMMC indexes journals covering communication, mass media, linguistics, discourse, rhetoric, sociolinguistics, communication theory, language, logic, organizational communication and other closely related fields of study. Date coverage: 1915 - present.
- Humanities Full Text / Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window These combined databases provide access to journal articles, book reviews, performance reviews, interviews, bibliographies and more from a broad range of humanities and social sciences journals. Date coverage: 1907 - present.
Librarian
6th floor,
Mugar Memorial Library
Mon-Fri 9am - 5 pm
rdwyer@bu.edu