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First Year Seminars: FYS 134-4 Psst! Secret Clubs

In-class activity 9/9

Searching at Musselman Library

Library Catalog

To see have more request options and to see all results, sign in with Muscat Plus before searching.

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Interdisciplinary Databases

Disciplinary Database

Background Information

Borrowing Materials from Another Library

text from catalog to request a digital copy of an item and have it delivered within 24 hours by email

If the library doesn't have an item you want, you can request to borrow a copy from another library via our interlibrary loan service.

Articles (PDF) usually arrive within 24 hours. Books may take 4-7 days. A book chapter (PDF) may arrive in 1-2 days.

small button with the words Gett It! For articles, use the Gett It button in databases to see if we have access. If not, you will see an option to sign into Muscat Plus and submit your request.

For books and book chapters, search Muscat Plus. If you don't see what you want, click "search other libraries" and then submit your request with the "request from other libraries" link on the results page. Or, you can use the interlibrary loan form at the top of Muscat Plus.

Keyword Searching Strategies

Keyword Searching

For both library catalogs and article databases, start with your keywords: such as:

"conspiracy theory" AND philosophy

"Secret societies" AND conspiracy

Connecting Words
  • Use AND to require both terms
  • Use OR to search for either term
  • Use NOT to exclude a term (for example, conspiracies NOT medical)

Subjects or Tags

Library catalogs will also list subjects/tags on each record that will make it easy to find other items on that same subject. 

Conspiracies

Conspiracy theories - United States - History

Secret societies

Databases will have similar tags/subjects. If you click the tag, it'll show you everything in the database that shares that tag.

Need help choosing the right keyword?

Watch our short (4 minute) video. It will provide more strategies and example.