Academic libraries' books are assigned official subject categories. They are listed in the details contained in a Tripod entry for a print or electronic book.
These are very helpful when searching for books on a certain topic because they describe the important subject matter (or genre, etc.) of a book.
There is a catch with using these, however. They use specific words and phrases that may not be the first ones that come to mind for us. It is therefore useful to use books we already know about from a topic, like the ones that are on your course syllabus.
We can use Jerusalem: History of a Global City as an example.
Jerusalem: History of a Global City by In the Subject field of the details for this book, you will see two linked subject categories. Each of these specifies a broader category, with the more general being the leftmost word or phrase.
Clicking on the links here or in the Tripod details will run a library catalog search for other materials (these will usually be mostly books) with the same categorization.
Here are a few other subject searches that may be useful as you start your search. There are certainly many others that may help as well.
Books may also have tags for their genre. You can find these in the Genre field within a book's details, and you can search for these in Tripod using the genre option in the advanced search drop-down menu.
The most notable of these for your purposes is Maps.
Combine Maps with subject searches for the terms above, keyword searches for, eg, "Jerusalem" and some particular aspect of its history, say, foodways, trade, etc.
Jerusalem Online by If you are interested in a book not owned by the Tri-College Libraries, try E-ZBorrow first. EZ-Borrow gives you access to book collections at a number of local colleges and universities. It usually takes about three to five days for what you request to arrive.
Books not available through E-Z borrow can be obtained through Interlibrary Loan (ILL), and will arrive, once you submit the form, in as little as four to five days. Keep your paper deadlines in mind, however, when planning on resources to use -- ILL items may arrive too late to be useful.
To get bibliographic information on books not owned by the Tri-College Libraries, you can turn to WorldCat. This is a combined library catalog containing more than 179 million records describing items owned by libraries around the world. Many of these titles are available to you though interlibrary loan.
