TMU Library Catalogue
TMU Library Catalogue searches for books, e-books, dvds, and other resources. It is a good place to look for known books, or when using the keyword search to find some relevant titles for an assignment. When you find a good title, open the catalogue record in order to identify the assigned Library of Congress subject headings that can be used to identify similar works.
National Names:
While United Kingdom (or the fuller United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) may be an official name, Library of Congress continues to use the older terminology: Great Britain. For the constituent portions of the UK, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, you may also find entries listed under the regional geographic entities.
Sample Library of Congress subject headings:
Great Britain--Politics and government--1837-1901 [period corresponding to the reign of Victoria]
Great Britain--Politics and government--1901-1910 [corresponds to the reign of Edward VII]
Great Britain--Social life and customs--19th century
London (England)--Pictorial works
London (England)--History
London (England)--Buildings, structures, etc.
London (England)--Social conditions--19th century
Thames River (England)
London County Council [this is a corporate body]
Booth Charles [you can also search Booth, Charles as a personal name and you'll find some works he authored]
Headings that take the form:
[topic]--Great Britain--History--[century or time period]
Working class--Great Britain--History-19th century
Poor children--Great Britain--History
[topic]--England--London--History-[century or time period]
Department stores--England--London--History
Historic buildings--England--London
Poor children--England--London--History
Sewerage--England--London--History
Streets--England--London
Some sample keyword searches:
urban history england
social reformers england
diaries london england
local government london england
victorian london
victorian fashion
edwardian london
police london history
If the catalogue records do not indicate any e-version, you can search for it in the "books to borrow" collections of the Internet Archive www.archive.org. See detailed notes below at the bottom of the page.
You can email the subject librarian to see if it is possible to purchase an e-version. This is not always possible and if it is, it may take up to a week for the ebook to show up in the old catalogue.
TMU Library Search Everything
TMU Library Search Everything This search engine searches for books and audio-visual materials that are also listed in the library's catalogue, as well as journal articles (chiefly those that are available electronically), theses and dissertations, newspaper coverage from some recent and a selection of archival newspapers, and digitized content such as out-of-copyright books and journals that are available from sources such as The Internet Archive and The Hathi Trust.
Refine your search by content type or other criteria including listing in the library catalogue.
Quick Facts
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
remain useful sources of quick information. In addition to free sources such as Wikipedia, consider some of our licensed electronic content from publishers such as Oxford University Press, as well as printed items.
Try keyword searches in the main catalogue using subject or topical terms and either dictionaries, or, encyclopedias
Example keyword searches:
Example Library of Congress subject heading searches:
- Great Britain-History-Dictionaries
- Great Britain-History-Encyclopedias
- Great Britain-History-Chronology
Biographical information
Consider these resources:
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004, 61 vols.) Supplements for recently deceased (2001-2004) & (2005-2008)
- Dictionary of Labour Biography
- Who's Who (Great Britain, for living persons)
- Abridged Biography and Genealogy Master Index (1988)
Example Library of Congress subject heading searches:
Historical Maps and Atlases
Try Library of Congress subject headings such as:
The David Rumsey Map Collection makes accessible historic maps of North and South America
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Oxford Reference, previously known as Oxford Reference Online Premium, comprises more than 120 dictionaries and reference titles covering a comprehensive subject spectrum including: General Reference, Language, Science and Medicine, Humanities and Social Sciences, Business and Professional content.
The Toronto Public Library (TPL) has ongoing subscriptions to many biographical resources as well other dictionaries and encyclopedias that are not available at Toronto Metropolitan University. Many of the resources are located at the Toronto Reference Library situated just north of Bloor Street on Yonge Street.
The Internet Archive collects digitized books, pamphlets, and audio and other files. It is especially useful when searching for an English language printed book published before 1925 that are in the public domain or out of copyright. These can be downloaded free of charge. There are many more current publications available as "Books to Borrow" that are part of a Controlled Digital Lending Program whereby a library digitizes a book that is in copyright, stores the original and only circulates the digital copy to one user at a time. These may be available for one hour at a time, or "borrowable" for 7 or 14 days. In order to use these borrowable titles you need to create a free account [see the upper right area of the homepage www.archive.org] and download the free app for Adobe Digital Editions. This is what is used to track your available days of use. You can "return" the book early so that someone else can use it.
Here is a sample search in the Internet Archive for great exhibition 1851