SSHEL Home > S-Collection Home > Find Children’s Books > Search the Catalog for Books by Topic
The following information will assist you in finding children’s and young adult titles and call numbers of books on a given topic.
Most books are located in the School (S-) Collection (Room 101, Main Library) of the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library (SSHEL). However, books may also be located at the Center for Children’s Books and older books may be located in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Room 346, Main Library) or in the Oak Street Library. To verify the location of an item, search for the book in the Library Catalog. For additional information about physical location of books, see the About the S-Collection page. If you require assistance locating an item, please ask for assistance at the SSHEL Information Desk.
Juvenile & Young Adult Literature
To search for children’s and young adult books in the Library Catalog, choose the “Advanced Search” option. If you are searching for fiction, use “juvenile fiction” as a subject term. For example, if you wanted to find a fiction book about vegetables, search for “juvenile fiction” as a subject on the first line and “vegetables” in “any field” on the second.
“Juvenile fiction” – Subject
AND
vegetables – Any field
If you are searching for non-fiction, use the phrase “juvenile literature”.
“Juvenile literature” – Subject
AND
vegetables – Any field
Books About Children’s Literature
To search for books about literature for children and young adults, use the Library Catalog. Choose the “Advanced Search” option. Enter the term “Children’s Literature” as a phrase in the first search line. Enter the subject words for your topic on the second line. As is always the case when searching databases, the key is finding the right term or combination of terms.
A general search that is very useful in exploring topics is:
“Children’s literature” – Subject
AND
“History and criticism” – Subject
To search more specifically, include a word in “any field” for your topic. For example, if you wanted to find scholarly books about how gender is dealt with in children’s literature, search for:
“Children’s literature” – Subject
AND
Gender – Any field
This search results in several hits. Some of these may be useful, others may not. Remember that the key is determining the best search phrase and experimenting with various words.
