Native American Resources: Search Strategies

The RTC Library organizes its books using the Dewey Decimal System. Below are the call number sections you can browse for information: 

•             270.089 Religions

•             299 - Religion

•             305.23 - Children

•             305.4 Women

•             323.1 - Claims, Government Relations

•             398 - Folklore

•             419 Sign Language

•             497 - Languages

•             728 - Dwellings

•             790.1 - Games

•             793.3 -  Dances

•             812 - Drama

•             897 - Literature

•             970.004 - History, North America

•             970.1 - Indians of North America

•             973 - History, United States

Use different search tools to find information (links out to Green River Community College):
Background Info in Reference Books,    Books,    Articles,    Videos,    Websites

1. FIRST: Try broad search words relating to your topic, such as:

2.  NEXT: Try a new search.  Add words to narrow your search, such as:

• Example searches:
  Apache religion
  Apache languages
  Indians of North America religion
  Indians of North America languages
  Native American first contact

3.  FINALLY: Brainstorm synonyms or related terms for search words

• Example: religion - spirituality, spirit, worship, beliefs, sacred, holy, god, deity, heaven, afterlife, ritual, ceremony
   
• Example searches:
  • Apache spirituality
  • Apache beliefs
  • Indians of North America worship

Source: Sarah Clark (2016, January 20)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

1. When searching the library catalog, databases, or the internet, AND / OR / NOT

help you broaden or narrow your search results:

2. Use truncation symbols (usually ? or *) in library catalogs and databases to capture all forms of words (forest* will retrieve forest, forests, forester, forested, foresting).

3. Keep searches simple using basic search words. Search on body image women rather than how does body image affect women in the United States?

4. Use a variety of search words.  For example, try different searches to find different results:
          body image women
          self image women
          personal appearance women
          anorexia women
          body image teenagers
          ...etc.

5. Become a power internet searcher!  Use advanced search techniques in Google to get better results from your internet searches