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Boatwright Memorial Library

Using the Catalog

Books available in the University of Richmond Libraries are all listed in the UR Library Catalog.

You can search by book title, author, keyword or subject heading.  When search for biographies, you should use your person's name in a "Subject Heading Browse" search. When dealing with a topic that can be used in many fields it is best to add a second word that describes your area of interest.  for example, "Africa" and "civilization".  Start with a keyword search and when you have found one or two relevant books, examine their subjects headings to help guide further searching.  Remember that books are generally on broad topics and that you are not searching the full text, only the titles, subject headings, and--if you're lucky--the table of contents.  If the record for a book of interest includes a reproduction of its cover, you can click on that for more information, such a s summary or book reviews.

Other Sources of Books

Best Resources for Research on Social, Cultural, and Ethical Issues

The list below begins with a general database that covers all topics and then includes communication, sociology and social sciences databases that focus on specific topics like communication, business, technology, culture, society, and behaviors.

If a keyword search does not turn up the kind of article you need, check to see if there is an "all text" or "document" search option, that would let you search the full text of any full text articles in the database. Then use quotation marks around the words in any multi-word phrase, like "privacy in public places."