Notice the section of the catalog entry titled "Subjects." One of the subjects is "Indians of North America -- Legal status, laws, etc." Notice that the subject heading is highlighted, indicating that it is "hot" or "active" text containing a link. Click it.

Now you will see "Indians of North America -- Legal status, laws, etc." among a list of similar subject headings. The first part, "Indians of North America," is highlighted text, indicating that it is a broader subject heading. Let's use this broader heading to get an overview. If you were to enter "Indians of North America" as a subject heading and click "Search" (being careful that the dialogue box indicates that you are searching for a subject, not a title, author, or word string), you would get the results shown here. (Don't actually use the OhioLINK search engine for this part of the exercise or you'll lose the frame that lets you read my tutorial.)

It turns out that there are about 30,000 entries under this heading! Clearly, we're not going to be able to browse through this entire list.

However, click on the OhioLINK screen's "NEXT PAGE" box and browse through a few OhioLINK pages. You'll quickly notice that the Library of Congress organizes material by geographical region. This means that we're going to see screen after screen of sources on "Indians of North America -- Alaska," then "Indians of North America -- Alberta," and so on, through an enormous alphabetical listing of sources by region! We're trying to grope our way toward a useful subject heading, but the geographical organization of the material is getting in the way.

At this point the researcher's best option is to consult the printed volumes, Library of Congress Subject Headings, that are found in virtually every major library. See "Library of Congress Subject Headings" in chapter four of The Research Process. (Here is the catalog entry for the very latest edition of this valuable four-volume set. Don't worry if your library doesn't have the very latest edition. Use what's available.)

I assume that you want to move ahead quickly with this guide to library research, so I am going to suggest a shortcut. If you were to type "Indians of North America bibliography" in the "Subject" box and click "Search," you would get the results shown here. (Again, don't actually use the search box or you'll lose my tutorial frame.) What we're doing is looking for a "magic solution"--a ready-made list of books and articles on this subject. (See "Magic Solutions" in chapter four of The Research Process.)

Although I'm taking us on a shortcut, you can always apply the following principle: Whatever topic you're investigating, pay close attention to subject headings ending with the word bibliography. Time-savers and magic solutions are to be found there.

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