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Arkansas State University

Library Catalog: Subject / Author Searches

Use this guide to learn how to find books, magazines, dvds, pretty much anything using the Library Catalog.

Subject Search

A Subject Search allows you to search for books within a particular subject.  With this search, simply type in your subject and hit the "Search" button.

Subject Search


Search Tips:

1. Your search results are by subject.  The number by the subject is the number of books we have on that particular topic.  Click on the link to see the books.

2. You may notice that you receive a very large number of subjects when you do your search. Using library defined subject headings will greatly narrow your search results down.  However since you often don't know the library subject heading, being as specific as possible usually helps.

Example:

Doing a subject search for
"civil war" gives you:
Doing a subject search for "united states civil war" gives you: Doing a subject search for "united states civil war photography" gives you:

Example Subject Search

Example Subject Search

Example Subject Search


Author Search

An Author Search lets you search for a book by who wrote it.  Enter in the last name of the author and as much of the first name as you know.  If you are looking for a book written by an corporation, enter the corporation's name in the "last name" search box.


Author Search