Books on Dance
Understanding the Library's call number system can save you time in locating information. Because call numbers are assigned to the first subject heading listed for a book in the HSU Library Catalog, and most library catalogs, knowing something about call numbers will also help you to evaluate the results of your searches.
Our library uses the same call numbers for our Reference Collection, our print periodicals, and our main book stacks. Once you have identified the call number or numbers relevant to your subject, you can use this information to browse in the various parts of the Library.
IMPORTANT: The Audio and Video/DVD collections do not use the Library of Congress System and are not arranged by subject, so browsing doesn’t work very well for them. You need to use the HSU Library Catalog to find them.
Our Library, like most academic libraries in North America, uses the Library of Congress Classification System to assign call numbers. In this system, the first two or three lines of a call number identify the subject of the book (or other item).
Here are the call numbers for some subjects of interest for the study of dance:
| GV 1580 - 1799.4 | Dancing |
| GV 1600 | Dance criticism |
| GV 1601 - 1619 | Dance history, chronologically |
| GV 1621 - 1728 | Dance history by region or country |
| GV 1781 - 1790 | Theatrical dance |
| GV 1784 | Jazz dance |
| GV 1787 - 1790 | Ballet |
| GV 1796 | Special dances |
| GV 1796 F55 | Flamenco |
| GV 1796 H8 | Hula |
| GV 1796 M5 | Minuet |
| GV 1796 T3 | Tango |
| ML 3400 - 3465 | Dance Music |
| RC 489 D3 | Dance therapy |
Books, DVDs, Videotapes, and Sound Recordings in the HSU Library are listed in our catalog. Use the QuickSearch on the Library’s homepage to find them. This Research Guide includes instructions for finding audio or videorecordings in the catalog.
Keyword searching is usually the best way to start a search in the HSU Library Catalog. You may use author names, words from a know title, or subject terms for your keywords. It is often helpful to truncate your terms with a question mark or keep words together as a phrase with quotation marks. Here are a few examples:
| “martha graham” biography | “swan lake” choreog? | “jazz dance” tango history |
Examine your results. You may find a subject heading link that is a better match for what you are looking for, or you may find additional keywords to use. You can also click on the call number link for a book of interest to see a list of books near it on the shelf. This is like browsing the shelves without coming to the library. For more help with using the HSU Library Catalog, please contact a librarian.
You may be able to borrow needed books from other libraries if ours doesn’t have what you need. This is especially helpful when you have found a citation to a valuable book in a bibliography. Always check our catalog first for books. Then you may want to search WorldCat or Melvyl to identify books for interlibrary loan. It may also be possible to borrow videos or audio recordings on interlibrary loan.
WorldCat has an interlibrary loan request form built into the database. For books from other sources, use the form on our interlibrary loan page. Please note that our interlibrary loan service is available to currently enrolled HSU students, faculty, and staff only.