REFERENCE COLLECTION

Encyclopedias, handbooks, and other reference sources provide background reading on your topic and related issues, bibliographies, names of authorities and important works in the field, and occasionally related web sites.

PHILOSOPHY/RELIGION
· Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 10v. [R.R. B51 .R68 1998]
· Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy [R.R. B41 .C35 1999]
· Routledge History of Philosophy (v4: The Renaissance and 17th c. Rationalism) [R.R. B72 .R6]
· Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. 4v. [R.R. B802 .E53 2003]
· Encyclopedia of Religion. 15v. [R.R. BL31 .E46 2005]
· Encyclopedia of Science and Religion. 2v. [R.R. BL240.3 .E43 2003]
· Science and Religion 400 B.C.-A.D. 1550: From Aristotle to Copernicus [R.R. BL240.3 .G74 2004]
· Science and Religion 1450-1900: From Copernicus to Darwin [R.R. BL245 .O47 2004]
· The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. 4v. [R.R. BR302.8 .O93 1996]
· The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther [R.R. BR325 .C26 2003]

HISTORY
·Renaissance and Reformation, 6v [R.R. CB359 .R455 2007]
·New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. 6v [R.R. CB9 .N49 2005]
· Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History. 5v [R.R. D23 .B45 2005]
· Handbook of European History, 1400-1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation. 2v [R.R. D203
  .H36 1994]
· Tudor England: An Encyclopedia [R.R. DA315 .T53 2001]
· Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. 6v. [R.R. CB361 .E52 1999]
· Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe [R.R. CB361 .S498 2005]
· The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance [R.R. CB361 .C27 2003]

LITERATURE
· Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) [R.R. PN451 .D4-] online version
    Covers writers, movements, and periods in scholarly essays by authorities.
· Poetry Criticism (PC) [R.R. PN1010 .P62-]
    Excerpts from criticism of the works of the most significant and widely studied poets of world literature.
· Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 (LC) [R.R. PN86 .L56-]
    Critical discussion of the works of 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th century novelists, poets, playwrights, philosophers, and other creative writers.
· Shakespeare Criticism: Excerpts from the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry, From the First
  Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. (SC) 67v. [R.R. PR2965 .S44 1984]
     "Presents significant passages from published criticism on the works of Shakespeare."

· A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture [R.R. PR411 .C66 2000]
· Shakespeare: A Study and Research Guide [R.R. PR2894 .B43 1995]
· Shakespeare A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life and Times, and More [R.R.
  PR2892 .B69 1990]
· The Cervantes Encyclopedia [PQ6337 .A2 2004] - in regular book collection on level 2 of Rolvaag

ART
· The Dictionary of Art. 34v. [R.R. N31 .D5 1996]
· Oxford History of Western Art [R.R. N5300 .O946 2000]
· Dictionary of Architecture and Construction [R.R. NA31 .H32 1993]
· Renaissance Art: A Topical Dictionary [R.R. N6370 .E27 1987]

MUSIC
· The New Grove Dictionary of Music. 29v. [Music R.R. ML100 .N48 2001] - online version!
· The Harvard Dictionary of Music [Music R.R. ML100 .A64 2003]
· The Oxford Dictionary of Music [Music R.R. ML100 .K35 1994]

BOOKS

BRIDGE catalogs resources available at St. Olaf and Carleton libraries. Use BRIDGE to search for books (including subject-specific bibliographies and biographies) and periodicals, but not chapters within books or articles within periodicals.

Search BRIDGE by TITLE, AUTHOR, KEYWORD, or SUBJECT. Some examples of relevant SUBJECT headings include:

›To identify and request materials that are not available at Carleton or St. Olaf, use:

WorldCat
You can search WorldCat using keywords, subjects, authors, etc. just as you do in BRIDGE.

ARTICLES

Journal articles provide more in-depth information on a narrower topic. This is also where you find the most current information being published in the area of research you have chosen. The databases listed below are the best places to start your search:

• Academic Search Premier
  This database provides access to over 8,040 multi-disciplinary publications, many in full text. Covers 1975 to the present.
  
• ATLA Religion Database
  ATLA is an index to religion journals, book reviews, and books or collected essays. Covers 1949 to the present.
  
• Philosopher's Index
  An index with abstracts to Philosophy books and journals in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.
  
• Iter - Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
  An index to books and journals in all areas of medieval and Renaissance studies (400-1700) since 1842.
  
• Art Index
  Indexes English-language art periodicals, plus museum bulletins, bibliographies, film reviews, and conference reports. Covers 1984 to the present.
  
• JSTOR - An index to and full text of select academic journals.
  
• Project Muse - An index to and full text of journals published by Johns Hopkins University Press and other scholarly publishers.
  
• MLA International Bibliography - The major index to literature journals. Covers 1923- present.
  

OH NO! What if the full text is not available online?

Don't worry - just use the button to track down a paper copy. Simply click on the FIND IT! button and you will be offered a series of choices in the order in which you need to check for availability. At the top of the FIND It screen you will be notified if there is an electronic copy in a different database that St. Olaf subscribes to. If not, you will have a choice to search BRIDGE to see if St. Olaf subscribes to the journal in question, or finally a link to ILL so that you can request a copy from another institution.

WEB SITES

There is a lot of good information on the Internet but there is also garbage. Your task is to carefully evaluate the information you find and determine whether it is worthy of inclusion in a scholarly endeavor. The following table will help you ask the right questions as you evaluate sites:

Based on "Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask." UC Berkeley - Teaching Library Internet Workshops. 7 Jan 2005. 14 Feb 2005 and "Evaluating Web Sites." The Ohio State University Libraries. 14 Feb 2005.

Librarian's Catalogs of Web Sites

Scout Report: Reviews of web sites, searchable by keyword and Library of Congress Subject Headings.
Infomine: Web sites collected by academic librarians, full descriptions and subject headings.
Librarian's Index to the Internet: Aimed more at public libraries but still useful for many topics.

Some Recommended Sites:

Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts (New York Public Library)
Digital Scriptorium (Columbia University)

CITATION GUIDES

· MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition [R.R. LB2369 .G53 2003]

· The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. [Ready R. Z253 .C5 2003] & online

A good online guide can be found at http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/