Searching the Catalogue for historical background on a topic

This short tutorial will show you how to use the Catalogue to find background information for historical research.

Why use background information?

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Example topic

"Nurses who served in the First World War"

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You can use the skills you learn here to search a range of catalogues.

Let's get started!

How to use this tutorial

Library Catalogue

• Click Advanced Why?

You are now ready to search.

How to search the Catalogue

The example topic is:

"Nurses who served in the First World War"

We want nurses and "first world war" to be the main subject of the items we find.

Lets replicate the search in the image below:

• Click on the image to enlarge it and enter the keywords as shown
• Click on Submit

Search Tips Explained

Search Results Part 1

Let's review our results.

Search Results Part 2

Each catalogue record provides a description of the item including:

• Book description (Author, Title, Publisher, Date)
• Location (eBook, Call number)
• Subjects

Look at Subjects.

Why are Subjects useful in historical research?

Wars or conflicts could be described in many ways.

Click on the catalogue record above.

Enter the phrase used to describe the First World War in the catalogue record above.

Check answer

What other words could be used for nurses?

Check answer

Let's incorporate these additional words to broaden our search.

Refining a search

1. On the top of your screen select Modify Search

2. Delete the existing search from the search boxes to start again.

3. Open the image below and replicate our new search.

4. Click Submit.

Search Tips Explained

Search Results

Search Results

Search Tips Explained

Browsing Subjects

Browsing Subjects is another way to discover items on the same topic.

From your search results:

1. Click onto the title of any item

2. Click onto one of the Subjects in that Catalogue record.

2. Browse the list of Subjects for other potentially useful subjects.

3. Click a Subject to find books/ resources for that subject.

 Why are Subjects useful?

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For more search tips relating to historical research see

Finding Historical Information guide.

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