If you need more information contact Jennifer Dorner at 503.725.4125 or dorner@pdx.edu.
Finding Books
When searching for books on a topic, your best choices in the Library catalog (VIKAT) are keyword searching and subject searching. Subject searching requires you to have some knowledge of the terms assigned to book topics by librarians. Some examples are listed below:
Great Britain History Lancaster and York, 1399-1485
Great Britain History Tudors, 1485-1603
Great Britain History Stuarts, 1603-1714
Great Britain -- History -- 1660-1714.
Keyword searching is a more flexible way of combining search terms to retrieve books on your topic. When using keywords, be sure to think of synonyms (or related terms) for your search terms. You can also combine terms with the word AND to make your results more relevant. For example:
saint* and cult and england
Remember, too, that you are not just limited to what we own in our Library. Whenever you are searching, you have the option of expanding your results by clicking on the SUMMIT button in the upper right hand corner of the results screen. This automatically repeats your search in the SUMMIT catalog of the ORBIS/CASCADE Alliance. If you find an item in that catalog that you'd like to see, click on the REQUEST THIS ITEM link and follow the directions on the screen.
If you cannot find what you need in the our catalog (VIKAT) or the catalog of the Orbis-Cascade Alliance (Summit), then you might try WorldCat.
WorldCat
Contains more than 30 millions records for materials cataloged by the Library of Congress and OCLC member libraries, including most academic and many public libraries in the U.S. Catalog includes books, serials (journals, magazines and newspapers), musical scores, recordings, videos, computer software, films, maps and manuscripts. Locations for all materials are cited. Can be searched by author, title, subject, year, language, material type.
Early English Books Online (EEOB)
Full text facsimiles for 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title and Wing's Short-Title catalogues, the Thomason Tracts and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. This includes virtually every early English language work published in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America.
Finding Magazine & Journal Articles
To find articles in journals, magazines, or newspapers, you will need to use one of the Library's print indexes or article databases. An index or article database will allow you to look for articles by title, by author, or by a few keywords that describe your topic. Most of the Library's electronic databases can be accessed from off-campus with your ODIN account.
Academic Search Premiere
A multidisciplinary database that includes full-text access to many of the journal articles. EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite has a broad scope and is an excellent starting source for finding journal articles.
Historical Abstracts (1969-present)
Citations to articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Citations drawn from over 2,000 journals in history, related humanities, and the social sciences. Includes citations to book reviews (appearing in 100 major history journals) and dissertations.
Humanities Index
Cites articles from scholarly English-language publications in the Humanities field, including History.
Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective
Indexes nearly 1,200 periodicals as far back as 1907. Citations to more than 1,300,000 articles, including over 240,000 book reviews. This retrospective index has broad subject coverage from the both the Humanities and the Social Sciences.
Education Abstracts Full Text
Coverage of 423 core periodicals, monographs, and yearbooks in the field of education. Topics include a wide range of contemporary education issues, including government funding, instructional media, multicultural education, religious education, student counseling, competency-based, and information technology. Indexes journals back to 1983, full text available for most journals from 1996.
Religion and Philosophy Collection
Religion and Philosophy Collection is a subset of Ebsco's Academic Search Premier database, plus a few unique titles. Includes many full-text titles and searching can be limited to peer-reviewed journals. Most of the content has been published since the mid-1960s, but there are a few sources from the early 1900s.
Religion index one. Periodicals
Z7753 .A5 | 2nd Floor
Using Bibliographies
Our reference collection includes published bibliographies. These are usually book-length collections of journal and book citations on specific topics. Many citations are annotated and include abstracts of the works cited. Bibliographies are an excellent place to begin your research, since someone has gathered the citations for you.
Late-medieval England, 1377-1485
Z2017 .G87 | 2nd Floor
Late medieval England (1377-1485) : a bibliography of historical scholarship, 1975-1989
Z2017 .R68 1994 | 2nd Floor
Bibliography of British history, Tudore period, 1485-1603
Z2016 .R28 1959 | 2nd Floor
Tudor England 1485-1603
Z2017.5 .L4 | 2nd Floor
Bibliography of British history. Stuart period, 1603-1714
Z2018 .D25 1970 | 2nd Floor
A Bibliography Of Bibliographies In Religion
Z7751 .B33 | 2nd Floor
Finding Background Information
The encyclopedia of religion
BL31 .E46 1987 | 2nd Floor
Encyclopedia of religious freedom
BV741 .E47 2003 | 2nd Floor
Encyclopedia Of Women And World Religion
BL458 .E53 1999 | 2nd Floor
Encyclopedia Of Religion And Society
BL60 .E53 1998 | 2nd Floor