Search Strategies
Search for books with keywords. Once you've found a relevant book, scroll down to find the SUBJECT headings. Here are some examples of relevant African Diaspora subject headings:
K-Search
Kenyon's one-stop search tool, K-Search, is a great tool to use if you have a particular author or title to search for; it's also a good place to start a general search for scholarly and peer-reviewed materials.
To the left of your results list, you'll see options for filtering your results:
- Peer-reviewed (under "Show Only")
- Publication Date
- Resource Type (e.g., Journal Article or Book)
- Subject area
Locating a book
Locating a book in Chalmers
After you've identified a book you're interested in, you'll need its Call Number in order to find it:
Call number breakdown
The call number for the book in the screenshot above is HQ1155 .S66 2010. This call number breaks down as follows:
- HQ represents the general subject area and is sorted in alphabetical order, e.g.,
G ⇒ HQ ⇒ J
HN ⇒ HQ ⇒ HS - 1155 represents a specific subdomain or discipline and is sorted as a whole number, e.g.,
HQ310 ⇒ HQ1155 ⇒ HQ2100
HQ1140.9 ⇒ HQ1155 ⇒ HQ1155.1 - .S66 represents the author's last name or another identifier and is sorted alphabetically by letter and then numerically as a decimal, e.g.,
HQ1155 .R98 ⇒ HQ1155 .S66 ⇒ HQ1155 .T11
HQ1155 .S42 ⇒ HQ1155 .S66 ⇒ HQ1155 .S8 - 2010 is the year of publication but is not usually necessary for finding a book
Finding your book
- Use the one or two letters at the start of the call number (HQ in this example) to identify the book's general location in the library.
- Once in the general area, use the labels at the end of each shelf to find the row containing the initial letter/number combination (HQ1155 in this example).
- The initial letter/number combination (HQ1155) should narrow the search down to one or two shelves, where either the book's author and title or the decimal letter/number (.S66 in this example) can be used to identify the correct book
- If necessary, the date (2010 in this example) can be used to differentiate between editions or works by the same author
General location of call numbers
The maps below give the general arrangement in Chalmers Library of the one or two letter that begin each call number:
Chalmers L1
Chalmers L2
