Catalyst is the shared online catalog of the libraries of Carleton College and St. Olaf College. It provides an access point to the books, periodicals, government documents, and electronic resources available at Carleton or St. Olaf.

Library of Congress Subject Headings are the words and phrases you can use to do a subject search in Catalyst (as opposed to a keyword search, where you may use any words you like).

When starting out, it is often helpful to do a keyword search on your topic, and then to examine the subject headings of the results you find relevant. Catalyst displays these subject headings as links and clicking on one of them will automatically conduct a subject search for that particular topic. If you have trouble finding relevant sources using a keyword search, try consulting the printed volumes of Library of Congress Subject Headings in the reference collection.

There are many ways to locate books that are relevant to your research topic:

1. Search for books through a simple KEYWORD search in the Catalyst search box above. Enter words that describe your topic (names, places, events, etc.).
2. When you find a book on your topic, examine its subject headings for relevance to your topic. Click on a subject heading to see other materials classified under the same subject heading.
3. Find related titles using the virtual browse section at the very bottom of a book record in Catalyst.
4. Look in the bibliography of books you have already identified as useful. 
5. Use the advanced search box below to search by subject.