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- Beginning Research At LSU Libraries
English
English Librarian
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-3330
Special Collections/Archival Assistance
Need Help with primary sources or archival materials? LSU Libraries Special Collections has a vast collection on rare books, manuscripts, and other special research materials on a variety of topics. For more information visit their website.
You can also make an appointment with one of the Special Collections Librarians. Contact them via email to set up an appointment.
Alia Kempton: akempton@lsu.edu
Zach Tompkins: ztompkins1@lsu.edu
Discovery
Discovery is a good starting point when beginning your research. The discovery tab is the default function of the search box on the LSU Libraries Homepage. An image of the Discovery box is seen below.
The Discovery function searches many databases, journals, news sources, and book titles for relevant results pertaining to your research topic. these results can be limited in various ways such as source type, date, full text, and relevancy. It should be noted, that the Discovery function may miss some relevant resources for your research. You should further your research, by utilizing specific databases that are tailored to your specific subject matter.
Searching using Boolean Operators
Boolean operators are simple words that are used while searching databases. These operators are used to either include or exclude particular keywords in searches. Utilizing these phrases helps make your search more specific and helps eliminate results that are not relevant to your research goals.
Advanced Searching Strategies
Truncation and Wildcards
The advanced search feature allows you to refine your search with filters and other options.
You should also learn how to search using truncation and wildcards.
Truncation allows you to search for terms with various endings.For example, searching libr* would pull up results for library, libraries, librarian, librarians, etc.
Wildcards let you search for terms with unknown characters or multiple spellings. For example, searching wom?n would pull up results for woman, women, womxn, etc.
The symbols used for wildcards and truncation vary from database to database, but the Help section of each database will let you know which symbols to use.