The UNT Library Catalog contains records for items of all formats (books, journals, CDs, etc.) located in all of the libraries at UNT. There are options for searching by keyword, title, author and subject in the Basic Search of the catalog. When searching for a research topic . . .

• Use a keyword or subject search
• Save your favorite searches through your UNT Library Catalog account; be sure to open your account before searching to use this option. Find more details on Preferred Searches on the UNT Library Catalog Help page.

A keyword search looks for the word(s) you enter in all fields of an item's record: title, author, subject headings, notes and more.

• Keyword searches give you lots of book titles, but many won't be relevant to your topic.

A subject search narrows your search and retrieves more titles relevant to your topic than a keyword search.

•  The search looks for the word(s) you enter only in the item's subject headings, which come from the Library of Congress's predefined list of categories to describe topics. For example, here are the subject headings assigned to the book, Disrupted Cities: When Infrastructure Fails.
• This is a more difficult search to conduct because you have to guess at the Library of Congress subject headings

Suggested strategy: Do a keyword search first. When you find a book relevant to your topic, look at its subject headings and use them for subsequent subject searches.

Open the catalog in another window and follow these steps to conduct a keyword search.

1. Enter one or more of the search terms you generated with search strategies; the library catalog automatically inserts the Boolean AND between all search terms, so you don't have to type them 
2. From the Materials dropdown menu, select Books and Journals
3. You have the option to select a particular Collection
4. Click on the Submit button
5. Select the title links in the Results list to read the full information about the books, including the subject headings. Using the example at the right, you would discover that Horses - Behavior is a subject heading for the books resulting from this keyword search.
6. If the book you want is in print, note the Location, Call Number and Status before leaving the results
7. If the book is electronic, then there is a link on the book's webpage that takes you to the full-text. When you're off campus, you'll need to enter your EUID and password to access ebooks.
8. Contact Ask Us to get help finding a print book or using an e-book

Open the catalog in another window and follow these steps for a subject search.

1. Under the Basic Search tab, select the Subject link (see box above)
2. Enter one or more of the search terms you generated with search strategies; the catalog automatically inserts AND between all terms. From the example above, Horses Behavior will be used.
3. From the Materials dropdown menu, select Books and Journals (see box above)
4. You have the option to select a particular Collection
5. Click on the Submit button
6. Browse the subject headings screen to see which headings are best for your topic. The numbers at the right indicate how many books in the catalog are labeled with each subject heading. In the example, 6 books have the subject heading, Horses Behavior
7. Select a subject heading link to see the list of books                        
8. Follow steps 6. through 8. from above