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Germanic Studies

Library catalogs and how to search them

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Library Catalogs

Searching Library Catalogs Effectively Using Keywords Subject Headings

You can identify many literary sources available in the CU Libraries and in libraries around the world in library catalogs, including original literary works, edited editions of an author’s work, literary criticism, and bibliographies.

Keywords

To find material on a certain topic, start with a keyword search on the topic, thinking of synonyms for your search terms, e.g. works and Werke.

Two useful strategies to use in keyword searches are:

  • Putting quotes around phrases, e.g. “Berlin Wall”
  • Using an asterisk to pick up variants of words, e.g. hart* picks up harte, harter, hartes, harten, and hartem

Subject Terms

Once you have found a useful item, look at the full record and take note of the terms listed under “subject.” Click on relevant links to find related materials.

Subject terms can cover a topic, author, genre, era, etc. Some that you might find useful to use in a keyword or subject search alone or in combination include:

  • German poetry
  • German literature
  • Swedish drama
  • Norwegian literature
  • Sagas
  • 18th century
  • 19th century
  • 20th century
  • history and criticism
  • bibliography
  • biobibliography
  • biography
  • Mann, Thomas
  • Ibsen, Henrik
  • criticism and interpretation
  • characters
  • correspondence