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Syracuse University Libraries

Special Collections Research Strategies

The purpose of this guide is to assist students, faculty, and the general public in conducting research at the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at Syracuse University Library.

Libraries Search

Libraries Search, accessible from the Syracuse University Libraries' website, is an excellent way to search for SCRC print materials and archival collections, as well as books, journal articles, and other resources in the Libraries' general collections.

The first way is to search directly from the SU Libraries' website by entering keywords into the library’s search bar. This general search bar allows you to search the entire library catalog (including secondary sources).

Libraries Search basic search box

When viewing your search results in the main catalog, you have the option to limit your results under Refine your search. You may need to scroll down to see all of the options.Screencap showing the search refining facets available in the Libraries' catalog.

Try the following options to refine your search:

  • Select the “Special Collections” option located under Library Location to limit your results to SCRC materials.
  • Narrow your results further by selecting “Book/eBook” or “Manuscript” under Content Type.

Sometimes, you may find that you need to refine your search, but are unable to find the criteria easily listed on the left-side bar. If you click “more” at the bottom of the displayed list under the particular area you would like to refine, you will get a pop-up window which provides you with all of the criteria for those particular search results. For example, in the images below, I would like to see more subject terms.

Note that you not only have the option to include multiple subject terms, but also to exclude terms. In this example, I would like to see all the results pertaining to "law" OR "women," but I do not want to see results for "Indians of North America" NOR do I want to see results on "personal relationships."

You also have the option to narrow results using the search term AND. In the images shown below, I have selected to see results regarding “history” AND “law” but excluding all those regarding “social life and customs” or “religious aspects.” In order to see results in this manner, you need to first make sure that the “Any” box (the first option under the criteria heading) is not checked.

Image depicting example of selecting subject terms using Summon.

You can sort your search results Subject Terms by the frequency of the subject term (number of results including that term) or alphabetically by selecting # for frequency or A-Z for alphabetically on the "Sort by: # | A-Z."