How do I search HOLLIS for something with a title that’s just one word, or not very unique?

I'm trying to find a book that has one generic word for a title, like "History."  I’m seeing too many HOLLIS results to find what I want: what should I do?

It can be tricky to find the relevant HOLLIS record if your search terms are very common words. Here are some methods to try:

Add the author or subtitle to your search

When you search HOLLIS for History Lowell, Robert Lowell's 1973 book of poetry entitled History is one of the top results. When you search for the phrase “History: a novel,” Elsa Morante's novel History is a top result.

Use the Journal Search page

This limits your HOLLIS search results to newspapers, magazines, journals, and other periodicals. 

Find a unique identifier to add to your search

Use the web (Google, Amazon, etc.) to get more information about the title, such as full author name, subtitle, ISSN or ISBN. 

Note: an ISBN is useful but not always perfect. Remember that each ISBN corresponds to only one version (paperback second edition, hardback third edition, British edition, etc), and Harvard’s copy may be a different edition from the one for which you have an ISBN. Additionally, not all HOLLIS records include the ISBN.

Try a title browse

A title browse allows you to limit results to items whose full title is an exact match, eliminating results that include your search word somewhere in the title. This works best if there are not many works with that same one-word title. Note that your results will include items with longer titles that have a single-word title listed in the record details, such as a variant title, the title of the series the work belongs to, or the title of a work it contains in full.

HOLLIS User Guide: Starts with/Browse

Ask a librarian for help

We have lots more search tricks that might work.

Have another HOLLIS question? Our HOLLIS User Guide provides an overview of HOLLIS's features and functions.

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