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History of the Plains Indians: Book Searching

Keyword Search

Many systems, like databases, library catalogs online, and Google, default to the "Keyword" search, which uses "natural language" or words. This term or set of terms can appear anywhere or any field in a record, such as title, author, subject, note, etc. The meaning of the words are not considered. For example, the terms "heavy metal" could pull results related to music or related to soil content. Here are some basic tips on how to use the Keyword search.

Tip: Combine or group terms by enclosing them within quotation marks.

  • Ex: "red power movement"
  • Ex: "american indian movement"

Tip: Use the Keyword search to combine an author and keywords in a title of his or her work. For example, for information about the poem, "Mending Wall", by Robert Frost, or the fiction novel, House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende, combine the author's last name and a keyword of the title of the work. Note: The names are not case sensitive. Additionally, the search may pull other non-related titles if the terms entered appear in the item record.

  • Ex: Banks and Indian Movement
  • Ex: Weyler and Blood
  • Ex: McAuliffe and Bolton

Grouping: Keyword search results are usually grouped by relevance to bring the most likely titles to the top of the list. Each group represents a similar level of relevance and results are sorted within the group by date or title. To get an ungrouped result set, use boolean operators to form a complex query. 

  • Ex: indigenous and cultural revitalization
  • Ex: indigenous and resurgence

Subject Search

The "Subject" search uses a "controlled vocabulary" and focuses on subject terms or subject headings to define or to describe the information within the system. This type of search is targeted using specific terms or phrases that are highly relevant to the topic. It will locate all records on this subject and does not consider other fields, like the title or note fields as part of the search. This ensures the results are related and focused on the subject searched or the desired topic, which saves the user time.
Examples: Many of the book items are located in Special Collections or the Main Collection.

  • Great Plains Indians
  • Indian Art and Great Plains
  • Indians of North America Great Plains History
  • Indians of North America Great Plains Social Life and Customs
  • Native Americans Great Plains Wars
  • Indians of North America Great Plains Antiquities
  • Indian cartography
  • Indians of North America maps
  • Indians of North America atlases
  • Indians of North America  and domestic animals
  • North America Native races history

For additional information and to locate the Library of Congress subject authority headings and more, see the Library of Congress Authorities link below. 

  • Indians of North America Oklahoma History
  • Osage Indians
  • Indians of North America Legal Status Laws
  • Indians of North America government relations
  • Indians of North America Treaties

WorldCat

For additional book titles not owned by NSU Libraries search the WorldCat databases. The WorldCat databases will locate items (books, dvds, and articles) from other libraries as well as items owned by the NSU Libraries.

JVL Books

John Vaughan Library:

Book examples, see more under the Books tab in this guide.

eBooks

Examples of eBooks

The following items are in eBook form and linked through the NSU Libraries Discovery system. Click on the "View eBook" icon in record to access it. If you are off campus, you will be prompted to enter your NSU id and Password.