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Montana State University Billings

ARTH 439: American Indian Art: Finding Books

MSUB Library PowerSearch

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Search terms and Library of Congress subject headings

Choosing the right search term will help yield the best results. You can start your search with "native american*" or "indigeous art" to find books about Native American artists broadly, but the official Library of Congress subject heading is "Indians of North America."  I recommend you search using both phrases, using quotation marks to ensure the systems searches by phrase.

Here are some samples of Library of Congress subject headings to keep in mind:

  • Indians of North America
  • Indian Art -- United States
  • Indian Art -- Great Plains
  • Indian textile fabrics -- North America
  • Indian Pottery -- North America
  • Navajo Art
  • Indian Art -- Southwest New

When you find a relevant book in the library catalog, examine the subject headings in the full record to find additional keywords to search.

For more information about how the Library of Congress chose subject headings and subheadings can be found here.

 

When searching for materials, use different variants such as:

  • "Native American"
  • "Native American Indian"
  • "Indian of North America"
  • "Indigenous American"

Ebooks

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Interlibrary Loan

Need something that the MSU Billings Library doesn't have? Request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL)!