Subject Searching in the Catalog

You'd think you could enter any topic as a Subject search in the catalog. However, the Subject search uses special terms to organize books by subject. These are called Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH for short). If you enter your keywords as a Subject search, you may not get much back. For example:

If you entered a Subject Heading search for: acquired immune deficiency you would get no books! Instead, the catalog suggests you search under AIDS (Disease)

When you search using the LCSH term, AIDS (Disease) you'll see the library has around 40 books.

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Module 3 - Using the Catalog Contents Module Choice Terms Input Help Exit