Scholarly Books vs. |
Non-Scholarly Books |
| Published by university press or educational publisher | Published by mass-market publisher |
| Extensive citations (footnotes or endnotes) and bibliographic information | Minimal citations and bibliographic information |
| Primary aim: to increase the body of knowledge on a subject | Primary aim: to entertain; to teach at a K-12 level; and/or to advance a personal opinion of the author's |
| Higher reading level (complicated sentence structure, specialized vocabulary, formal tone) |
Lower reading level (simple sentence structure, no specialized vocabulary, colloquial tone) |
Scholarly Journals vs. |
Non-Scholarly Periodicals |
| Published by an academic press or scholarly society | Published by a corporate firm |
| Peer-reviewed (each article formally critiqued by other scholars in the field before publication) | Not peer-reviewed |
| Chiefly text | Heavily illustrated |
| Usually few, if any, advertisements | Many advertisements |
| Higher reading level (complicated sentence structure, specialized vocabulary, formal tone) |
Lower reading level (simple sentence structure, no specialized vocabulary, colloquial tone) |
Rosemont College Archives are located in Kistler Library. Collections span from the college's founding in 1921 to present day.
Open by appointment only.
610-527-0200 x2208
library@rosemont.edu
How should I search if I'm looking for a specific book?
The best way to find a book when you know the title is to do a simple search by "title":
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How should I search if I'm looking for books on a particular subject?
To find books on a subject, start by finding the appropriate Library of Congress subject heading(s) for your topic. These are controlled terms that professional librarians use to describe materials in library catalogs, and in some periodicals databases.
You can find out what subject headings describe your topic in one of a few ways:
button marked Subjects.
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Many of the search results returned at first may be irrelevant, but this will be a good broad starting point from which to refine your search.
Find a book that seems relevant to the subject you're looking for, and click on its title. This will take you to the Item Information screen. Click on the "Catalog Record" link, at the top of the display, to change to the catalog record view.
Scroll down the catalog record, and look at the fields labeled "Subject":
These Subjects are the Library of Congress subject headings that describe the book.
If you like, you can also click on these subjects to return a list of all books that are described with that exact subject heading.
This search may miss some books where the subject is worded differently, however, so exercise caution when using this strategy.
It may be more helpful to simply perform a new search by Subject, using words that you've seen in the Subject field of books that are on your topic. Searching for a word by "subject" will find that word anywhere in a book's Subject lines.
How should I search for a specific type of item (videorecording, etc.)?
Click on Power Search, right below the search box on the main catalog page:
From the drop-down box marked "type," select the type of item you are searching for (DVD, ELECTRONIC, etc.). Then you can enter your search terms in the fields above to conduct a keyword, title, subject, or other type of search. (NOTE: This method is NOT recommended for periodicals. Many of our online journals are not designated as periodicals in the system. For best results, search for periodicals in the catalog as you would for books.)
