It’s summer!
Your library loves summer as much as you do! You get more than 10,000 hits when you throw the word “summer” into the catalog search box on the library home page.
What? You’re not only seeing the word “summer,” but other forms of the word as well? This is for two main reasons. First, our catalog automatically gives you alternate forms of words, which is called “stemming.” So when you searched “summer,” you also got Summer’s Lease (the autobiography of art historian John Rothenstein), and John Muir Summering in the Sierra (Muir, the famous naturalist).
Second, our searches didn’t specify that we wanted our search word someplace specific, like in the title, so we also got works by composer Jeremy Summerly and author Montague Summers.
Look, there’s also a lovely summery subject heading: Summer — juvenile literature. Only seven of our items are literature for children and also about summer. All of them are in a marvelous database called Early American Imprints, which has the full text of and full-page images from books and pamphlets published in America from 1801 through 1819. Here is a page from one of them:
In summer we retire
Into the shady grove
And little then desire
In noontime’s heat to rove
Aaaaaah, that inspires one to pour a cold drink and sit outside with a book!
By the way, if you want to search the catalog only for an EXACT word rather than the word and all of its endings, choose “more search options” on the library home page:
Then scroll all the way down, and check the box that will disable auto stemming:
Happy summer!