Finding Background Information

Encyclopedia Of Religion (Mircea Eliade, ed.) Most important encyclopedic work for religion.

Routledge Religion Resources Online  Collection of 30+ reference books.

New Dictionary Of The History Of Ideas  An encyclopedia on the history of thought.

Cambridge History of Christianity. Chronological account.

Encyclopedia Islamica  One of the most comprehensive sources on Islam and the Muslim world.

Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd. ed. Multi-disciplinary approach to the Islamic world.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online   Collection of Oxford publications on Islam; contains primary sources.

All subjects have noted encyclopedias. To find them do an Annie Keyword search like:

• Christianity (dictionaries or encylopedias)

Finding Books

LC Classification System. Indicates where books are classified (understanding call numbers).

Annie, the Library Catalog.

• Use the Keyword search to find appropriate books for your research.
• sample search:  islam conversion

                                        roman empire conversion

WorldCat

• Try very specific searches. This catalog has over a billion records.

Finding Journal Articles

RELIGION / THEOLOGY

ATLA Religion.  Premier religion database for journal articles.

• Complete Listing

LITERARY STUDIES

MLA International Bibliography. Premier literature and language database.

• Complete listing

PSYCHOLOGY

PsycINFO.    Premier database for psychology and related fields.

• Complete Listing

SOCIOLOGY / ANTHROPOLOGY

Sociological Abstracts. Premier database for sociology and related fields.

• Complete Listing

HISTORY

Historical Abstracts . Premier database for history outside of North America.

• Complete Listing

America: History and Life. Premier database for history within North America.

• Complete Listing

PHILOSOPHY

Philosopher's Index. Premier database for philosophy.

• Complete Listing

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY

JSTOR. Full text archive of >1100 important scholarly journals. Most recent 2-5 years are NOT included

Project Muse. Full text access to recent issues of >200 important scholarly journals.

Finding Images

Eikon: Image Database for Biblical Studies. Ongoing joint project of faculty and librarians at Yale Divinity School.

ARTstor. Large image database to locate art illustrations of religious events.

How To

Write an academic paper. Excellent introduction to researching and writing an academic paper. Created by Dartmouth College library.

Request an item on Interlibrary Loan. This W&L service will borrow books and articles for you from other libraries.

Write your bibliography.  Learn to cite your sources using the MLA (Modern Language Association) Citation Style guide. Go here if your professor prefers another style guide.

Avoid Plagiarism. Staying out of trouble.

Get Research Help. Fill out this form if you'd like to meet with Prof. Merrill individually to discuss your research.