• In your research, including the library catalogue, you are likely to encounter historical, outdated, offensive and harmful language  
• Library of Congress subject headings are slow to change and need legislative action  
• Terms are transcribed from the materials themselves  
• Scholarship and/or description of it, not done by done by members of the community  
• Some derogatory terms used to describe colonized, racialized, or marginalized people have been reclaimed and used by authors and creators from those communities.   
• Terms historically used by people to describe themselves have fallen out of use or out of favor.   
• Scholarly approaches to Black and African Diasporic Studies have evolved.

Secondary (Scholarly) sources provide context to understand and analyze primary sources. We recommend starting with secondary sources to help prepare you to search for primary sources.

You can find books, articles, and book chapters using the library website. . 

Use the Library website to find journal articles 

Begin your search at the library homepage. From the LibrarySearch box, you can find books, journals, and other resources in our library catalogue in addition to searching for articles across multiple databases.

In the LibrarySearch box, type in the keywords relevant to your research topic.

For example, if your topic is a "What was life like for fugitive enslaved persons in Canada in the 19th century?", you can enter the keywords:

"enslaved persons" Canada

You will get a list of results such as Articles, Books, Reviews, and more! To find scholarly articles, underneath filter your results select "Peer-reviewed articles" under Show Only and select "APPLY FILTERS" when prompted.

Narrow down your list to get better articles

Sometimes you will get hundreds of results. Use the filters in the left hand sidebar to narrow down your list of sources. You can filter your search results by Subject, Publication Date, and Language

• How do I choose good keywords?

Use the Library website to find books

In the library homepage search box, type in the keywords relevant to your research topic. When searching for books, remember to use simple, broad keywords.

From the list of results, underneath Filter your results on the left sidebar select "Books" under Format and select "APPLY FILTERS" when prompted to see the the library catalogue search results.

Narrow down your list of books

You can refine your search with various filters on the left sidebar, such as Library, Subject, Publication Date, and Language.

For ebooks, you can also click on the Online checkbox at the top of the page underneath show only.

Why should you use subject specific databases?

• The library website search may produce too many or irrelevant results 
• You want to search for more specific time periods
• You want to search by geographical location (use the geography option in the dropdown menu for a search field in the Advanced Search).

America History & Life is the key database for Canada and US history