F&M College Library

ANT 378: Endangered Languages

Keywords

Remember that you need to use keywords when searching in library resources. Think about keywords that might be used to describe your topic and brainstorm synonyms for those words to include in your searching as well. Use "" when you want to search multiple terms as a phrase. Keep in mind that the name of your language may be spelled in different ways. 

Don't forget to use words like AND, OR, and NOT (boolean operators) between your keywords to broaden or narrow your search. 

Example:

"endangered languages" AND Alaska
Nahuatl 
linguistics
Your chosen language AND your chosen region

Subject Terms

Use Subject Terms (assigned by the Library of Congress) to find like items in the library catalog and in journal databases. If you find a useful book or article, its catalog record usually will include Subject Terms under "Description" that you can use to find related research material. Below is a screenshot of a catalog record with subject hyperlinks. Click on the links to find related material. "Language obsolescence" is an import subject heading to remember.

Limiters

Many databases provide ways for you to limit your search results. If your initial search returns too many results try limiting these results using these features such as limiting by date, type of publication, subject, etc. Use LANGUAGE to find primary source material.