The UNT Libraries offer a wealth of research materials including books, CDs and other audio materials, DVDs and other video materials, journals, maps, music scores, dissertations, government documents and other items owned or hosted by the Libraries. Boxes on this page aid in facilitating searches of library materials. A box for searching media, including DVDs and streaming video is also include to facilitate ease of searching for these formats.

Below are a number of search strategies for discovering relevant materials in the UNT Libraries. 

Search Strategies - Keyword

A keyword search will find the greatest number of results. This search finds the keyword(s) in the title, author, subject, notes and other fields of a resource's record.

• Enclose phrases in quotation marks to ensure that the records retrieved contain the exact phrase.
            Examples: "Native American", "American Indian"
• Add more topic terms or phrases to focus your results.
            Examples: Indians folklore, Indians history
• If your topic is a specific person, tribe or place, search for the name.

Note that the term American Indian does not encompass Native Americans indigenous to Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Central America, South America or the West Indies. Other search terms that may be useful include aboriginal peoples, amerind or amerindian, and First Nations.

Search Strategies - Subject

Consider conducting a subject headings search. In the catalog, toggle the search type to 'subject'. Enter the following terms and phrases that commonly appear in the "official" (Library of Congress Subject Heading) subjects of resources related to Native American studies:

Indians : aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, including Eskimos. This subject subdivides into five geographic regions; for groups entirely within a region use the narrower terms:
Indians of North America,
Indians of Mexico,
Indians of Central America,
Indians of the West Indies or 
Indians of South America

Other subject terms that may be useful include:
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous women
Alaska Natives
Hawaiians
Minorities
United States -- Civilization -- Indian Influences
United States -- Ethnic Relations

Limit Your Search

Use the limiters on the left side of the screen to refine your results by resource type -- Books, Video/Film, Audio, etc. -- or by format, date, or collection.

Search Strategies - Synthesis

After running a basic keyword or subject search, review the results and view a record that matches your topic exactly, or at least very closely. Scroll down the record and look at the Subjects section. Each subject heading is hyperlinked to the set of materials that match that heading. You can click the 'See Also' link to see an alphabetical list of related subjects as well.

Remember ...

UNT students, faculty and staff can simplify note-taking and save a lot of time creating citations by using RefWorks.