Identifying Library Materials Using the Library Catalog

The Library Catalog is often the most productive place to begin your research. It allows you to search for materials in many different ways (e.g., author, title, subject, keyword, call number, etc.). One way to start is to identify subject headings (found in the multiple volumes of the Library of Congress Subject Headings, Z695.L695 +, on the Main Floor of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library). Some of the more common and useful subject headings follow. This list is by no means exhaustive, but suggests some of the many subject headings which can be used.

Broad Subject Headings 
American Literature
English Literature

Other Subject Heading Possibilities
Folk Literature, American
American Poetry
English Poetry

It is also possible to search authors as subject headings (last name first). This will retrieve books about an author. For example:
Austen, Jane
Lorde, Audre 
Rushdie, Salman
Whitman, Walt
Woolf, Virginia

(To locate works by an author, use an author search instead of a subject search. For example:
Cisneros, Sandra
Faulkner, William Note: There may be more than one author with the same name. Here you would want to choose Faulkner, William 1897-1962
Woolf, Virginia )

You can search by the title of a major work in combination with the author name. Note: these searches will give you library materials about the works, not the works themselves:
Paradise Lost - Milton, John
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Stowe, Harriet Beecher

Or by a particular school or approach to literary criticism:
Deconstruction
Feminism and Literature
New Criticism United States
Postcolonialism
Postmodernism Literature

Or by social/literary movement:
Beat Generation
Harlem Renaissance
Naturalism in literature
Postcolonialism
Romanticism
Transcendentalism

Subject Headings can be further divided according to time period, geographic location, genre or material type. For example:
American Literature 20th Century History and Criticism Bibliography
American Literature African American Authors Bio Bibliography
American Literature Asian American Authors
American Literature Connecticut
American Literature Hispanic American Authors
Caribbean Literature English
English Literature 18th Century History And Criticism
English Literature 19th Century History And Criticism Periodicals
English Literature Irish Authors
English Language Middle English, 1100-1500
English Literature Middle English 1100-1500
Feminism And Literature United States History 20th Century
Immigrants Writings, American History and Criticism
Indic Fiction English
Irish Literature History And Criticism (includes English and other languages. See also English Literature Irish Authors)
Lesbians' Writings, American
Shakespeare, William, 1564 1616 -- Dictionaries

Note: these are just some of the many possibilities. Subject headings can be confusing. If you are unsure of which subject headings to use for your topic, ask a Librarian for English.

© 2001, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. This is an official publication of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. For comments or suggestions concerning this page, please contact: Isabel Espinal, iespinal@library.umass.edu

Created: June 2002
Last modified: July 9, 2002