Search Terms
Since there are no specific Appalachian Studies databases, you need to be able to focus your searches when you use more general databases. The way to do this is to use the Boolean connector AND to connect two (or more) sets of search terms, e.g.,
- religion and appalachia*
- (poverty or poor or low income) and appalachia*
- (literature or poetry or fiction or drama or theater or theatre) and appalachia*
The asterisk (*) shown in the examples above is used in many databases to allow for searching by word roots, in this case appalachia or appalachian or appalachians. It's a good way to maximize your search results. These techniques (the use of the asterisk and the AND and OR connecting words) will work well in ALICE and in most article databases.
Subject Terms
Two commonly used terms for this part of the country are Appalachian region and Appalachian region, Southern. When used to do Subject Searches in ALICE, these are a good way to browse a wide variety of topics:
ALICE Catalog, OhioLINK Catalog, and WorldCat
1. Start here: ALICE Library Catalog...
- Includes: books, videos, magazine, journal, and newspaper titles, from ALL Ohio University campus libraries.
- Does not include: individual articles from magazines, journals, and newspapers.
- Look for Location, Call Number, and Status. AVAILABLE means it should be on the shelf, or readable online.
2. Can't find it in ALICE? Try OhioLINK...
- Access to 50M+ items from around the state.
- Quick, easy, and free borrowing; see table of borrowing information.
- Use
to get items from OhioLINK. Delivery usually within 3-4 days.*
*Please allow several additional days during COVID-limited operations.
3. Can't even get it from OhioLINK? Try WorldCat...
- Combined catalogs of thousands of libraries from around the world.
- You cannot borrow directly in WorldCat; request books and media via Interlibrary Loan.