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SSI2-117 | Coming Out! The Gay Liberation Movement

Using Primo

Primo is a library search tool for finding materials in the Collins Library and Summit libraries. You can search for books, selected articles and more in a single search box.

Keep in mind - it is not usually necessary to read a book from cover to cover to engage with the author's argument. Instead, you may focus on a particular chapter or use the index to find parts most relevant to your needs.

Search Primo

Search Collins+Summit+Articles

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Strategies for Finding Books

  1. Start with specific titles suggested in subject encyclopedia entries.
  2. Identify the Library of Congress Subject Headings for that book to identify more books on the topic.
  3. If required for your assignment, make sure that the book is scholarly. 
  4. To find eBooks, use the filters on the right to limit your results to eBooks (under "Resource Type")

Using Library of Congress Subject Headings

Books in Primo are assigned Library of Congress Subject Headings. In many ways, subject headings are a form of tagging, in that they represent the content of the material and provide ways for you to efficiently locate more materials that are conceptually related. 

Subject headings tend to lag behind terminology used today, meaning some subject headings may be outdated or considered incorrect. See Queer LCSH for a comprehensive list of Library of Congress subject headings. Keep in mind other databases may use other subject terms.

Here are several examples:

Reading a Call Number

Collins Library uses the Library of Congress classification scheme to organize books on the shelves. Follow these tips to find the book you need.

Example:

Book record example

  • Start with the top line. It is in alphabetical order. Ex. HQ
  • The second line is a whole number.  Ex. 76.8
  • The third line is  a combination of a letter and numbers. Read the letter alphabetically. Read the number as a decimal, eg. Y.23, Y.34, Y.344, Y.4, etc. Ex. .U5 D 69 (*Some call numbers have more than one combination letter-number line.)
  • The last line is the year the book was published. Read in chronological order. Ex. 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015, etc. Ex. 2016

Use the library map to find where the book is located.

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Practice Using Primo

Using Primo and keywords from your concept map, find a book related to your topic.

  1. Does Collins Library have this book? Where would you find it?
  2. Click on the tab "item details" to find the subject headings. What are they?
  3. Click on one of the subject headings for the book and re-run the search. Then use the facets on the right to find a book published since 2000.