CJS 282 Haywood (Hamilton): Finding Books and Ebooks

Search the Miami University Online Catalog for the following:

1) the name of the case

• When searching by case, use "v." (with the period, but not the quotation marks) between the names to get the most results.

2) the subject the case deals with -- books dealing with the legal aspects of the subject involved may discuss specific relevant cases.  Many Supreme Court cases are discussed in books on the Supreme Court or in constitutional law books.  Other subject examples include business law, commercial law, educational law, environmental law, corporation law, criminal law, etc.

• Use the topic of your case as the first keyword, and then "cases" (without the quotation marks) in the second search box to find other cases about the same topic as the case you chose.
• To find other Supreme Court cases on the same topic as your case, put your topic in the top search box and "U.S. Supreme Court" (without quotation marks) in the second box. Make sure to use "U.S. Supreme Court" (with the periods, but not the quotation marks) to get the best results.

“And”, “Or”, “Not” (Boolean Operators): Use the words to narrow or expand your search results. For Example:

• “automobiles” AND “accidents” will return results that contain BOTH of the terms.
• “juvenile” OR “adolescent” OR “teenager” will return results that contain at least one of the terms. Useful for words with similar meanings.
• “cinderella” NOT “rock band” will return results that do NOT include the 1980’s rock band, Cinderella.

Use an * at the end of a root word to find all variations of that word. For example, “child*” will search for “child,” “children,” “childhood,” and “children's.”

Brainstorm words or concepts that are similar in meaning and use those as search terms. If you find a good resource, look at the “Subject Headings” or “Descriptors” listed and use those as additional search terms.

Bibliographies/References/Works Cited pages are great ways to find additional resources. You can search the library’s Catalogs and/or Databases.

Choosing and Using Keywords (tutorial)

Refining Search Results (video)

Evaluating Information (tutorial)