Now that you've taken some time to look through the print and/or online reference resources, you should have a good idea about what keywords, key people, and key events are important for your topic. Hopefully you have also brainstormed a couple of different types of resources that will be helpful - speeches, diaries, letters, literature, images, or secondary sources (such as books that discuss aspects of your decade in detail). You may take this information to search PITTCat+ to find books related to your topics.
Keep in mind that you might have to run some additional searches in PITTCat+ depending on what your decade or event is. For example, if I was researching the 1860's (which is outside the scope of your assignment), I might search for books about the Civil War, speeches of Abraham Lincoln, letters or diaries by slaves, or documents related to the abolitionist movement or the Underground Railroad. If you find a couple of books that are helpful, don't forget to look at the rest of the books in that same call number area...you might easily find a few more resources.
HINT: Use the Get It! feature in PITTCat+ to have books from other Pitt libraries sent to Greensburg for you to use. Not sure what to do? Ask a librarian for help!
Signing into PittCat gives you access to the most results. The sign in option is in the upper right hand corner of your screen.
To begin a search, enter a term in the “search anything” box. You can select Books, Articles, and More to search for items across the entire library system including journal articles, images, ebooks, and more. Use the Library Catalog option to search for items available both electronically and physically in our libraries such as books, videos, music scores and more. The Course Reserves option will help you find materials put on reserve by instructors for a specific course.
The Results Screen shows you a list of items with basic information--click on a title to get a more detailed overview of the item you’ve selected. This detailed view gives you much more information about the item. You can see where the item is located and ways to email or print the record as well as how to cite. You may also see an abstract for the item or a table of contents if available.
You can Refine Your Results by using the menu on the left. If you only want a physical copy of the book pick “library holdings” or if you want an electronic copy of a book, choose e-book.
If Full-Text Content is available, you can get the full-text by clicking on the item title or the "available online" link.
You can add Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) into the Simple Search (the default search box) by adding them in all caps.
Phrase Searching - PittCat allows for phrase searching with the use of “ “. For example, the search "climate change" will find items with the phrase climate change in them.
Wildcard and Truncation – You can use wildcards (* and ?) symbols to search PittCat.
Advanced Searching - Check the Advanced Search for more tips and techniques to enhance your search, including Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT). Note: Boolean Operators must be entered in all uppercase/capital letters.
You can request material through PittCat using Get It, even for material that we do not own. You must be signed in, then click on the item you need to see the full menu of options available.
Use 'Request' to receive print materials from a Pitt library or ULS - Thomas Blvd.
To make a request:
Additional questions? Please contact us so we can work with you to try and get the material you need.
You can request material through PittCat using Get It, even for material that we do not own. You must be signed in, then click on the item you need to see the full menu of options available.
Use 'Request' to receive a scanned book chapter or an article from print material.
To make a request:
Additional questions? Please contact us so we can work with you to try and get the material you need.
If you identify an item in PittCat that is not available through our collections, or if PittCat indicates that we have access to an item in error, you can request it through our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.
ILL services are available to Pitt students, staff and faculty with a valid Pitt ID and Pitt computing account
Additional Questions? Please contact us so we can work with you to try and get the material you need.
