FYS 120W: Crime and Punishment: Race, Equity, and Justice

Here are some tips for improving your skills when searching Catalyst:

• Select the tab right above the search box to indicate whether you are looking for books or articles.  If you leave it set to Catalyst (the default), you will get all formats in your search results.
   
• Use the filters to the left of your search results to narrow your results to items that are most appropriate to your needs.
   
• When you find a record for a book that looks on target, open that record and look for the "Subjects".  This list can build your vocabulary as you do more searching in Catalyst.  You can also click on one of the Subjects to conduct another search.
   
• If you are searching for an item where you already know the title or author of the item, use the Advanced Search.  Advanced Search will help you be more precise in your searching.

Keywords
Keywords are the words that you already use to describe what it is you are researching.  This may be your own vocabulary or it can be terms you discovered from doing some initial exploring or terms you found in a basic encyclopedia article.

Subject Headings
Subject Headings are terms that librarians apply to items in the catalog.  This is a controlled vocabulary meaning that they are published and you must use the proper syntax in order for them to work.  Their power lies in the fact that they are systematically applied so when you discover one that accurately describes your research topic, you can use it in a search and guarantee that you have found everything on that topic.

Here are some examples of Subject Headings appropriate for this class:

• Criminal justice, Administration of - United States
• Alternatives to imprisonment
• Criminology
• United States - Race relations
• Social justice - United States
• Minorities - Civil rights - United States