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. 

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

1. Search for books by doing a simple keyword search in Catalyst (in the 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 hyperlinked subject heading to perform a subject heading search.
3. Conduct a virtual browse at the very bottom of a book record in Catalyst, to discover related titles.
4. Look at the bibliography of books you have already identified as useful. 
5. Use the advanced search box below to search by subject.

Relevant subject headings include:

• Blacks
• Black people
• African diaspora
• African Americans 

Browsing the stacks can help you evaluate the library's collection in a given field of study. The following call number ranges contain works relevant to African American studies: