Looking for a book in the Library? Search the Library Catalog for books and eBooks. Enter keywords, authors, titles, subjects or other terms to find what you are looking for. Note that you can also find articles and audio visual materials in the Catalog. To limit your results, select Library Catalog (Excludes Articles) from the drop down menu to the right of the search window.
Consider using the Advanced Search option to limit or expand your search further.
For eBooks, visit the Downloading eBooks tutorial for information on how to access the Library's collection of electronic books. Access requires logging in using your Blackboard username and password.
Can't find what you are looking for in the library's collection? Let our interlibrary loan specialist help. Interlibrary loan allows the Detroit Mercy Libraries to borrow titles from other academic libraries on behalf of Detroit Mercy students, faculty, and staff.
African American Studies is an interdisciplinary field. As such, its coverage extends to multiple branches of knowledge. At times this may create challenges for researchers looking for books in the library's collection.
If you are interested in browsing the library stacks for titles related to African American Studies, a good place to start is the lower level of the McNichols Campus Library in the E184-E185 call number range. However, books on African Americans may be found throughout the collection. To get a sense of additional potentially useful subject headings - and corresponding Library of Congress call numbers, which determine where books are housed on the shelves - please visit Princeton University Library's Browsing African American Studies page. These comprehensive tables illustrate areas in which other relevant books may be found. Please note, however, that the Detroit Mercy Libraries may not have books in all of these call number ranges.
Browsing the collection online is also possible through the library catalog. (See box lower on this page for tips on how to search the catalog). Once you find a book you are interested, scroll to the bottom of the catalog record to "Virtual Browse." Virtual Browse is an electronic view of what you can expect to find on the physical shelf next to the title you are looking for.
If you have questions about interdisciplinary research, please contact the librarian listed on the Welcome page of this guide or email edesk@udmercy.edu.
The words you use to search for books and other resources matter. They will determine your search results. Be creative as you develop your list of search terminology. Consider synonyms and try to think of as many ways of saying the same thing as possible. Placing your terms in quotation marks will ensure the term is searched for as a phrase. McNichols Campus librarians are available to help develop search strategies.
Some potential terms that may help start your African American Studies research include:
abolition* (Note that placing an asterisk at the end of a root term will expand your results, e.g., abolition, abolitionist, abolitionists, abolitionism)
African American biography
African American history
African American political thought
anti-slavery
Black studies
slavery
civil rights
Reconstruction
While keyword searches often yield positive results, consider using these terms in subject searches or combinations of subject and keyword searches. If you need help, ask a libarian.