Loyola's collections, both in print and online, are vast, and research can be intimidating. So, if you don't know where to start, start here!

The library catalog is a great place to start your research. Here are some tips to make searching more effective:

1. Make sure that you sign in. This allows you to see your access options for library materials, save searches, set notifications on saved searches, and save items to your favorites.
2. Use Boolean operators if you're doing a keyword search. For example:
   Women AND Activism AND Nineteenth-century - the catalog will return only materials that mention all three search terms: activism, women, and nineteenth century
   Activism AND (women OR feminist) - the catalog will expand your results by returning materials that mention both activism and women or materials that mention both activism and feminist
   Activism AND women NOT "reproductive health" - the catalog will reduce your search results by returning materials that mention activism and women but do not mention reproductive health.
   Make sure that you enter Boolean operators in all caps: AND, OR, NOT
3. Use truncation and/or wildcards. For example:
   Entering the search term activis* will return results for activism, activist, activists
   Entering the search term wom?n will return results for woman, women
4. Group your terms using parenthesis to do multiple searches at once. For example:
   (wom?n OR feminis*) AND "reproductive health"

If you need an overview of research materials available to you at Loyola University Libraries, start with the relevant research guide:

• Women's Studies and Gender Studies
• Research Guides

If you need a general overview of a topic with a bibliography leading you to more resources, start with:

• Oxford Reference
• Cambridge Companions

If you need articles, start with:

• GenderWatch
• Women's Studies International
• JSTOR
• Project Muse
• Social Sciences Citation Index

If you need dissertations and theses, start with:

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
• EThOS
• DART-Europe

If you need books, start with:

• Loyola library catalog
• WorldCat

All of the research tools listed above will require you to determine keywords in order to use them most effectively. The following search terms are examples of the types of subject terms that will be useful as you search for resources to support your projects:

• African American Feminists
• Ethnic groups -- Women
• Feminism
• Feminism -- Political aspects
• Feminism -- Research -- United States
• Feminism -- United States -- Bibliography
• Feminism -- United States -- Case studies
• Feminism -- United States -- Periodicals
• Feminism and literature
• Feminism and racism
• Lesbian feminist theory
• Women
• Women -- United States -- Social conditions
• Women -- Health and hygiene -- United States
• Women, Black -- United States
• Women intellectuals
• Women's rights -- United States