SEARCH THE CATALOGUE BY KEYWORDS

You can find books on your topic (including e-books) by going to the Catalogue tab on the UofT Libraries home page and typing keywords. E.g., if you typed multiculturalism quebec, you would get these results, including printed books and e-books, plus some other items like DVDs.

REFINE YOUR SEARCH

Then, you can Refine your search: on the left of the screen, click a specific library, a subject, etc. to narrow your search results. For instance, under "Language" you might click "English," and under "Format" you might click "Books" -- you'd get these results. Your results are sorted by "relevance," but if you want you can click Sort to sort by date or by author instead.

FIND OTHER BOOKS WITH THE SAME SUBJECT

If you find one book that's right on topic, it can lead you to others. E.g., if you tried typing great depression canada, then you could browse the results until you spotted a promising one such as The great depression of the 1930s in Canada. If you clicked this book, you'd see it has the Subject "Depressions--1929--Canada". This is an official Library of Congress Subject -- so if you clicked on this Subject, you'd find lots more books on the same topic.

Books are grouped together on library shelves in helpful ways. To take advantage of this, after you search the catalogue and find a few books that sound relevant, go find them on the shelf, and browse the other books nearby. Non-fiction books are organized on the shelf by topic. As for literature, you'll find that an author's works (fiction, plays, poetry), are together on the shelf, along with literary criticism and biographies about that author.