Subdivisions narrow your search process:

• scan just the items for the subdivisions of a broad topic that are most relevant to your topic.

Cross references broaden your search process:

• lead you to related relevant subject terms

Cross references focus your search process:

• identify the most specific terms for your topic.

Thesis statement:

For this topic it would be natural to start with the term "American Indians." The first thing you find in the Social Sciences Index would be a cross reference.

Under "Indians of North America" you would find subdivisions for:

You would also find cross references to relevant related terms:

Each of these subdivisions and cross reference terms may contain items that are potentially relevant and useful to your topic. Scan the items listed under each term for each year of the index. This way you will find most of the relevant material on your topic.

If you are in an index that does not use subdivisions, you must search a variety of terms describing your topic until you find the ones that list relevant items.