Child Socialization: Searching the Library Catalog

Search the library catalog for books, book chapters, and media. The library catalog lists volumes and issues of journals held or accessible on the Web. You cannot identify journal articles on a topic in the library catalog. Use one of the indexes listed on the HDFS 435 web page to do that.

Subject Searches

A Subject Search is a broad search of subject-related parts of the library catalog record:

Subject - both Library of Congress and Medical subject headings
Title
Author
Contents Notes

Subject searches are very flexible and are the ONLY type of search that allows:

Boolean operators OR, AND, and NOT to focus your search
Wildcard searching. Type an asterisk(*) at the end of any word or word root to search for any ending. For example child* finds child, children, and childhood

Sample subject searches:

child* and socialization
(children or preschool) and social development
(gender or sex differences) and socialization
parents and socialization

Be creative in thinking of words related to aspects of child socialization. Perseverance pays off. Keep a list of what worked for your particular topic:

role models
family or parents or father or mother
environment
television or media
peer groups
orphans or orphanages
child-rearing or child raising practices
sharing or altruistic behavior
chores
self-esteem
community or communities
affluent suburbs or housing project
diverse cultures
home schooling
day care
children with special needs
feral children (aka wolf girl, etc.)
agencies that support children and families
and so on...
 

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Subject Heading searches expect exact Library of Congress headings. They do not allow Boolean Operators or wildcards.

Note that "Child socialization" is not a subject heading, but there are many related subject headings:

Socialization
     Look through the subheadings to find more specific information.
Social learning
Social skills
Social skills in children

Child development
Developmental Psychology
Child psychology
Child rearing
Play groups
Sex Differences

Preschool children - Psychology
Education, Preschool
Problem children - Education, Preschool
Behavior disorders in children

Author Searches

Last name first! Author searches are "phrase" searches, and must start with the last name. Type as much as you know of a name. The catalog will retrieve everything that matches, no matter how many more characters the name contains.

For example the search:

bettel     retrieves Bettelheim, Bruno, and any other name starting with the letters "bettel"
 

Title Searches

Omit a, an, and the at the beginning of the title. Type as much as you know of a title, and the catalog will retrieve all matches beginning with what you typed.
 

Journal and Newspaper Titles

Always use this type of search to determine if the library owns a particular journal. It's easier and faster than a "regular" title search. To prove this, search for the journal Child Development using a title search, then a Journal Title search.