Library Home How Do I...? The Library Catalog Electronic Journals Interlibrary Loan Request Form View of library
How to Find Media Items on Your Topic

One of the most effective ways to find media items (videos, books on tape, CD-ROMs, etc) on your topic is to do a keyword search for your topic (as well as any synonyms or related terms for your topic) and then limit the results to the location of Media. Here is a step by step example:

  • Suppose that the subject you are looking for is women's issues. Keywords to use might include women, female, gender, and feminism.
  • Do a keyword search in ALCUIN for these terms, linking them with "ORs" and truncating where relevant.
  • In this search, for example, you would enter "women or female* or gender or feminis*". (For instructions on the use of Boolean operators and trunction, see How Do I Improve My Searching Techniques)
  • Once you have the results of the keyword search, click the button at the top of the screen.
  • For the box that says "WHERE Item is located:" select "G> Media Coll" from the pull-down menu.
  • Click the grey "Limit/sort items retrieved using above data" button at the bottom of the screen.
  • Be patient. This may take a few moments.
  • The results should end up being only media items relevant to the original topic.
  • If you have any questions, please ask at the Reference Desk.
Library Home Furman University Libraries Furman Home Click here to locate Furman through Mapquest.com Footer