AIS 475 - Autumn 2025: Finding Books

These sources can be helpful in defining terms, describing historical and cultural context, and outlining theoretical approaches.

 Additional collections of eBooks can be found on eBook Collections guide. The following collections may be useful for Indigenous Studies topics.

If you can't find the books you need at the UW or through our Summit partner libraries (Summit material can be found in UW Libraries Search), use the following catalogs. Books not available at the UW can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. 

When searching for books, it may be helpful to use Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in your search. LCSH are the official terminology used by libraries to describe book subjects.  For example, books dealing generally with Native Americans use the subject, “Indians of North America” so for the most comprehensive book search use that phrase rather than “Native Americans” or “First Nations.”

UW Libraries will be replacing “Indians of North America” to “Indigenous Peoples North America” sometime in the next year or so but for this quarter use “Indians of North America” in combination with other keywords. For example: “Indians of North America” performance identity

For books on specific communities LCSH usually uses the name of the community/tribe followed by the term Indians. So, to find books on music you may want to search: Salish Indians music. However, for some communities such as the Inuit, the term Indians is not necessary.

Keep in mind that other article databases may not use LCSH but have their own official terminology.