Resources for Religious Studies
Reference and Research Materials you can access
through SCU's Library website and/or elsewhere on the Internet
 

I) Use the SCU Library Homepage (http://www.scu.edu/library/) to access the following materials:

Research Guides: From the drop-down menu, select “Religious Studies,” and follow the two links provided there.

• Electronic Databases for Religious Studies Research – some links helpful for finding journal articles
• Brief Guide to Library Resources in Religious Studies
• The “Online Resources” section was updated Sept. 2006, and has very good recommendations.
• “Reference Resources” lists some good encyclopedias available in SCU Library reference area
• Note: Some reference works are NOT (yet) available online, so you’ll have to go to the library
  to use valuable resources like the Anchor Bible Dictionary and the Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Electronic Resources: Many of these materials are copyright protected, so must be accessed through SCU.

• Click on “ERes” to find required readings for our course (search for instructor “Just”; password is “scripture”)
• Click on “eBooks” to access the following very helpful materials:
• Gale Virtual Reference Library: full text of over 200 subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.
  Click the “Religion” subject line to find at least ten encyclopedias; see especially:
• Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., 15 vol., 2005
• New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., 15 vol., 2003 – Caution: do NOT use the outdated “Catholic Encyclopedia” (1906 edition!) available on hundreds of other free websites!
• Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2 vol., 2004
• Contemporary American Religion, 2 vol., 1999
• netLibrary: over 2300 books from many subject areas, including religion. Anyone can browse any book for 15 minutes, or you can “check out” a book for 24 hours (but only one person at a time).
• Search (by title, author, etc.) to find books available online pertinent to your interests.
• See especially Judaism: A Very Short Introduction, and Islam: A Very Short Introduction
• Oxford Reference Online: over 120 dictionaries and reference titles from a broad spectrum of subjects.
  Click the “Religion and Philosophy” link to find reference works that you can search or browse, esp.:
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
• A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
• A Dictionary of the Bible
• The Oxford Companion to the Bible
• The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible
• The Oxford Dictionary of Islam
• “Electronic Databases” - use the “A-Z” list or select “General and Reference” from the subject search to find:
• Britannica Online (or “Encyclopedia Britannica Online”): Searchable and browsable collection of Encyclopedia Britannica's latest article database, Merriam–Webster's Dictionary, the Britannica Book of the Year, and thousands of links to other World Wide Web sites selected by Britannica editors.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library & Oxford Reference Online: same as above
• Other links here will also be useful for research on particular topics.
• “Electronic and Print Journals” - select “Philosophy and Religion” and browse by categories.

OSCAR:

• Use OSCAR to find books and other materials available at SCU (including electronic books, videos, etc.)
• If SCU does not have a book, you can search for it using LINK+ (joint effort of many libraries in California)
• Use the “find course reserves” link (search for my name: Just), to locate some books “on reserve” for our course.
• To find films and videos, do a "Keyword Search" for "Videorecording and Judaism" or "Videorecording and Christianity" or "Videorecording and Islam" or "Videorecording and Bible" or "Videorecording and Koran" or similar terms.

II) Elsewhere on the World Wild Web:

• Wikipedia is getting better and better, but some sections still need improvement, so use it with due caution!
• Google & other Search Engines can find millions of websites; but be careful to ascertain their quality and biases!
• Catholic-Resources.org - my own website, with lots of biblical, liturgical, theological, and other religious materials; see esp. my Basic Bibliography for Biblical Studies.

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