Research Exercise
Finding Books and Other Materials Using Library Catalogs and Other Databases
April 2014
1. Start at the Gallagher Law Library website
2. In the UW Law Library (beta) search, type “Lombardi islam” below the Keyword search
3. Write down the following information about this book:
a. Author’s name:
b. Title:
c. Call number and location
4. Use the pull-down arrow after the phrase “Gallagher Law Library” in the search window near the top of the screen
and select UW Libraries + Summit
5. Click on the Search button again
6. Is another copy of this book available on campus? Write down the following information about this book:
a. Library
b. Call number
7. Why is it useful to know that there is more than one copy of this book on campus”
8. For one of these records, click on “Item details” and write down the first two subjects:
9. Click on the first subject. How many items does the search retrieve?
10. How many of these items are in the Gallagher Law Library? [Hint: look on the left side of the screen]
11. How many of these items are in the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries?
12. How many of these items are in languages other than English? [Hint: look on the left side of the screen]
13. In another browser window, go to the Gallagher legal research guide Islamic Law Research,
https://lib.law.washington.edu/content/guides/islamic-E560. Under the Library Catalogs section, select and copy
any one of the subjects shown in the table.
14. Go back to the catalog search and paste the subject into the search box (erase the other search that is in the box
first)
15. How many items does the search retrieve?
16. Change Sorted by: Relevance to Sorted by: Date-newest. [Hint: look above and to the right of the first item]. Under
Show Only (left side), click on Available in the Library. In what library is the first book located?
17. Under “Item details” click on one of the book’s subjects. How many items does that search retrieve?
18. Use the pull-down arrow after the phrase “UW Libraries + Summit” in the search window near the top of the screen
and select “Articles, Books, and More.” Click on the Search button again. How many items does that search
retrieve?
19. Repeat these steps using words and phrases appropriate for your paper topic. Remember that you are not
searching the complete text of books; in library catalogs you are searching selected information about books and
other material: authors’ names, titles and subtitles, subject headings assigned by librarians, words and phrases
used as chapter headings (recent books only).
20. Go to the UW Libraries Articles & Research Databases, http://guides.lib.washington.edu/databases. Type
“dissertations” in the search box. Select ProQuest dissertations & theses. Type “Islamic and divorce.” How many
items are retrieved?
21. How many are available in full text? [Hint: look on the right side of the screen]
22. Sort by Publication date (most recent first). To what university was the second most recent, available in full-text
dissertation submitted to?
23. In what part(s) of the record do our search terms appear? [Hint: click on Citation/Abstract]
24. Write down any useful subject headings
25. Repeat these steps using words and phrases appropriate for your paper topic. Remember that you are not searching
the complete text of dissertation; this database contains selected information about dissertations: author’s names,
titles and subtitles, subject headings assigned by indexers, and words and phrases appearing in abstracts.