Here are some places to look to help you establish that a potential source is relevant to your theme:

• Title Titles of books and articles can be misleading. If your theme is "The Building of the Great Pyramid of Cheops" and the title of the book you are considering is The Great Pyramids of Mexico, you are wasting your time because the Pyramid of Cheops is in Egypt. But suppose the title of the book you found is A Survey of the Foundations of the World’s Great Pyramids? This book probably includes a chapter on Egyptian pyramids and will be helpful in your research. If the title of a short article is unclear, glance through the article to see if it covers your theme.

• Table of Contents After you locate a potential title, look at the book’s table of contents to see if it lists a chapter on Egyptian pyramids. If so, this book will most certainly be useful to you.

• Index Another way to find out if a source is relevant to your theme is by using a book’s index. If "Cheops" (an Egyptian king) is not in the index, then you should look for another book.

• Database If you found an article in a database, you may be able to search it for the word "Cheops." You should always take advantage of the search features of online catalogue, databases, and Web sites. When searching a database, do not search for the general word "pyramids" or you will get all the books (or articles or Web pages) that have that word in them. Search for "Cheops."