Creating More Powerful Searches

The UMass Amherst Libraries are home to many different materials. Physical titles are located in the stacks at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library and Science and Engineering Library. When looking for what you want, you can stroll the floors and aisles of either library. At Du Bois, that's quite a task! A better option for accessing the libraries' collections is to use our online catalog, which we call Discovery Search. Discovery Search includes access to nearly all of the resources owned by the Five Colleges.

The information provided here will help you understand using the library better and allow you to perform more powerful searches when looking for physical books, DVDs, CDs, and ebooks, which primarily use Library of Congress Subject Headings. The goal is to get the most out of your searches! Many of our e-journals and database articles may use different controlled vocabularies or come from outside sources. If that is the case, these search strategies could still be helpful but might not always produce the best results. If you need any help, always feel free to reach out to your librarian!

This guide will focus on some popular materials, but you can use these same tips for whatever you're looking for. And don't forget! If you can't find what you need here at UMass, you can request materials from any of the other Five Colleges.

Descriptive metadata sounds intimidating, but it means the words a library uses to describe a resource. It's what provides the context and content of a book you want to find. It helps us identify, discover and organize what we have available in the library collections. Think about the obvious facts of a resource:

• Title
• Author
• Date or edition
• Keywords
• Subjects