Search the online Library Catalog for books in Blackwell Library. You can search by Title, Author, Subject or Keyword, or you can do a browse search. The books you can check out say "Stacks" before the call number and are located on the second floor of the library. If you feel like browsing, here is a website that explains Library of Congress Classification, which is how books are organized in our library.

These are call number ranges you might want to browse:

GV460-555 Gymnastics, Acrobatics
GV1580-1799.4 Dancing

Subject Searching

Why would you want to do a subject search? Well, let's say you were interested in finding all the books in the library about cats. You might find books about cats under "Cats," "Kittens," Felines," or a variety of other keywords. When you search by subject, then all of the synonyms are accounted for, so "Cats" as a subject would include all the books about "Kittens" and "Felines" as well. Subjects can also serve to narrow your search. A keyword search of "cats" would retrieve all the books that just have a few pages about cats, whereas a search of the subject "Cats" would retrieve books where the main focus were those cute, furry creatures! This website from MIT might do a better job of explaining it than I did!

Here are some subjects related to Dance you might want to try in your searches. This list might also be helpful if you are stumped with a broad topic and need to focus it a bit. Copy the term or phrase into a search box in the Library Catalog and select "subject" in the left-hand box.

Come on, get creative! You can combine subjects or subjects and keywords. Remember, joining terms with "OR" will get you "MORE" results and joining terms with "AND" will narrow your results. Savvy researchers try lots of different combinations of terms and discover what yields the best results. Happy searching!

Ballet	Ballet -- history	Ballet dancing
Ballet dancers	Belly dancing	Ballroom dancing
Choreography	Choreographers	Dancers
Dance -- study and teaching	Dance -- history	Dancing injuries
Dancers -- United States -- Biography	Dance therapy	Dance notation
Dance -- physiological aspects	Modern dance

Books from Other USMAI Libraries

If you are a student, faculty, or staff member of Salisbury University, you have access to the library collections of all of the University of Maryland affiliated universities through our shared library catalog. To borrow a book from another campus, follow these steps:

Select "Choose Campus" from the menu at the top
Choose a campus or USMAI for all the campuses
Perform the search
When you find a book you want that is not at SU, click on the location link
Click the request button if the item is available
Log in with the information from your Gull Card and complete the request
The book will be available for you to pick up in Blackwell in 3-5 business days

Books from Interlibrary Loan/Worldcat

Interlibrary Loan is a great tool that allows you to borrow a book from libraries outside the USMAI system. Before you submit a request, make sure that we don't own the book here at SU or at one of the other USMAI institutions. If not, you can submit a request through ILL Express.

You can also search Worldcat, which is a huge catalog of materials from libraries all over the world. If the book you want is in a library, chances are pretty good you will find it in Worldcat!
If you find the book you want and you know it is not available at SU or any USMAI campus, then you can click the Find It button and then request the book through Interlibrary Loan. The advantage of doing it this way is that you don't have to fill in all the information about the book!

Click here to go to the Interlibrary Loan webpage

Subject Guide Home | Library Home

The librarian liaison to Dance is Krista Knapp,
kmknapp@salisbury.edu | 410-677-0118