Search for subjects

Search for topics or subjects

Standard search

You may want to start with a simple search in the standard search box at the top of the page.  This box searches title, author, ISBN and synopsis.  For more in-depth results, you may want to use Advanced Search.

Advanced search

The Advanced Search page gives you a chance to specify words, names or phrases in particular fields such as title or synopsis, and limit by language or source.

Use quotation marks around words if you want to search a phrase (“pig in a poke” will get you results that have that particular set of words; without the quotes, you’ll get all books that have the words “pig” and “poke” included).

You can use wildcards to refine your search:

Using the "-" (minus) character narrows results. (A search of "snail -mail" will get you results about the garden pest, not about postal service.)

Using the "*" (asterisk) character broadens results.  (A search of "swim*" will get you results on swimmers and swimming, as well as swim.)

Clicking on categories and grade level boxes may help narrow your results.   However, not all records in our catalog have this information, so you may miss some relevant titles if you use this to narrow your search.

And be warned!  If you click on two categories, you’ll get all the titles within those categories, not titles that have both subjects!

Browse and Special Collections

You may want to browse our Special Collections on subjects of interest, including New York Times Bestsellers.  

Other Places to Search

You may also want to use other social reading sites such as Goodreads, LibraryThing, your local public library, and other places where you know folks are talking about what you like to read.  (The Horn Book and School Library Journal have great resources for young readers.)  Return to Bookshare with their recommendations, and search away!  We hope you’ll find the books you want are waiting for you here.