This searching strategies page guides you through three different types of searching strategies:
1. Advanced Searching for Known Items
2. Finding Primary Sources Through Secondary Sources
You are searching for a known item because you already have a strong idea of what you are looking for. You might know the author’s name, but not the exact title. Conversely, you might know the exact title, but not the author’s name. Or you might know both the title and the author. Perhaps any copy published in any year, translated or otherwise, digital or in print, will do. Or perhaps your known item is a specific copy within a specific edition, or an original manuscript. The following offers tips on using the advanced search setting to find known items in our Rare Books and Special Collections at the Jean-Léon Allie Library and Archives.
To obtain the broadest results for works published by a known author, we recommend searching for the Latin, English, and French variations of their name. The Boolean operator OR will broaden your search results by retrieving items using either French/English or Latin variations.
Try both the spelling in French/English and the original language of publication. The Boolean operator OR will broaden your search by retrieving more than one language variation of the title.
Changing the date range of in the Publication Date setting will enable you to find rare and old copies within the timeframe that you are looking for
Changing the library location will help you to locate physical copies at Saint Paul University
Some call numbers begin with Rar or Rare, while others begin with Ponen. Books that are part of the Ponendig Collection begin with Ponen. The subsequent numbers and letters in the call number relate to the books subject classification and author's name.
Secondary sources are excellent for finding primary information. As you examine the scholarship from your discipline and research topic, identify which documents, records, images, or objects are used as evidence to support the claims being made. As you are looking at your secondary sources, ask questions. What primary sources were used, and are they worth consulting first hand? Who else has used and critiqued these sources? What related primary sources has the author(s) not looked at? Introductions are a great place to gain a general sense of the primary sources being used. Reference to the exact sources may appear in the references, bibliography, tables, figures, lists of figures, and indexes.
Serendipity is associated with breakthroughs in the history of innovation––occurring unexpectedly often while conducting research on an altogether unrelated subject. Serendipitous discovery can complement the thoroughness and perseverance associated with the rigours of research, and it can complement known-item searching. Serendipity can be fostered in research, whether in the humanities or the sciences. Here are some tips for inviting serendipity into the research process:
Sharing your primary source interests is one way of increasing the likelihood of encounters with useful primary information. Special collections librarians, whether here or elsewhere, may stumble upon just the thing that you did not know you were looking for.
Browsing is the casual perusing of library collections, which can take the form of semi-directed searching associated with serendipitous discoveries. In this approach, you are open to the possibility that the most useful item may reside close to the book that you had set out to find. Although our Rare Books and Special Collections are held in closed preservation facilities, there are several ways of including browsing strategies in your search tactics.
| Related items | In preparation of your visit, add an item to your Visit Request Form that relates to a known item that you are certain about. Relationships can include related editions, similar titles, and related volumes of a multi-volume work. |
| Catalogue entries | While bringing your attention to surrounding catalogue entries, restart your search for your known item in the library catalogue and try it again in digital libraries. Notice whether other relevant primary sources appear. |
| Bookshelf | In preparation for your next visit, library staff can identify the neighbouring books to a known item that is pivotal to your research area. |
3. Browsing as undirected searching
| Subject search |
Conduct subject searches in the catalogue or in a relevant digital library while using date ranges to find rare and old volumes. |
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Rare Books and Special Collections across the world, including Saint Paul University, showcase highlights from their collections on their social media accounts. |
As a kind of chain searching, clue-to-clue searching involves treating the references in one source as a way of gaining clues that lead you to the next source, which then leads you to the next source. The path of moving from one clue to the next can invite the discovery of unexpected relationships between primary sources. Many of the volumes in our Rare Books and Special Collections contain references in the prefaces, margins, and bibliographies, which can lead you to a number of unexpected places. Time is a caveat in this highly exploratory approach.