SUBJECT SEARCH

 

Use the Subject Search when you want items ABOUT a person, church, or organization, or you want to search a specific topic.  This would include items written about a person, church, organization, or topic, but will NOT include records such as minutes or registers.

 

Personal names:

 

Enter the name in reverse order - last name first. 

 

Example:

Witherspoon, John

 

If you are not certain if a person uses their full first name, or their initials, or if you are not certain of the name, use an asterisk (*).

 

Example:

Reynolds, J* (will retrieve records with any form of that name in CALVIN such as Reynolds, Jack; Reynolds, Joyce; Reynolds, J.W.).

 

Church names:

 

Be as precise as possible.

Include the name of the church, the city/town, and state.

** (The catalog uses geographic codes that follow library cataloging rules, rather than the two-letter US postal codes.  This list provides a list of all the geographic abbreviations used in the catalog.)

 

**(Note: Be aware that for cities with large Presbyterian populations, searching by just the name of the town may provide you with a very long list.)

 

Example:

Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church Pittsburgh Pa

           

OR, when you know the town, but not the name of the church:

 

Presbyterian Church Pittsburgh Pa

 

Organization names:

 

Includes societies, boards, and also meetings or conferences.

 

Examples:

Presbyterian Church in the U S A Board of Foreign Missions

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

Sons of Temperance of North America

National Sabbath Convention 1844 Baltimore Md

Presbyterian Church U S A Synod of Lincoln Trails

 

Topics:

 

CALVIN uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for topics.  These are not everyday terms. 

 

Example:  You want to locate materials dealing with the Civil War.

 

If you do a Subject Search using the phrase "Civil War," the records retrieved will include the phrase Civil war in the subject field, but they will not all relate to the American Civil War.   To retrieve those records, you would need to search the Library of Congress Subject Heading: United States Civil War.

 

To view a list of the LCSH terms used in CALVIN, place the cursor in the Subject box and press F3 to view an alphabetical list of subjects.  If you do a Subject Search that does not retrieve any records, try a Keyword Search.