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New Ebooks on Islam
Scenario: 10 Page Research Paper
Welcome to SCU Library. Today you are going to
- Pick a topic
- Find background information (tertiary source)
- Find one book or article (secondary source)
March 16, 2023 will come quickly. Let's get started today.
Start Your Research
1. Start a Google doc to make note of what you do today
2. Pick a topic
You have a list of potential topics to guide your research question.
Pick one. This may involve browsing broad background information about several possible topics, and deciding what aspect looks super interesting.
Search by keyword, or browse by selecting a letter at the top (S for Shiism; C for Christianity; etc.)
- Oxford Bibliographies - Islamic Studies This link opens in a new windowContains lists of books and journal articles arranged alphabetically by topic on a wide range of scholarly research related to Islam, including history, theology, law, philosophy, literature, art, and architecture.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowThis database provides full-text articles from over 600 reference sources, as well as access to a wide range of information sources that include images, audio, and video. Topic Pages are informative overviews, and Mind Map assists narrowing and focusing research topics to improve database searching.
3. Find a Book (books are usually secondary sources)
Use OSCAR, the Library's catalog, to search for books. You may get other stuff, but mostly you'll get books.
Enter keywords or the title of a book you'd like.
- Library Catalog This link opens in a new window
3. Articles (Secondary Sources)
There are many databases that are good for topics of cultures of Islam. Try this trick:
Search Historical Abstracts, ATLA Religion, Academic Search Complete, and OmniFile all at once.
Enter any one of these databases individually, and following the directions below.
- Historical Abstracts with full-text This link opens in a new windowContains articles, books, book reviews, and dissertations on the history of the world (except United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present, and publication dates go from the 19th century to the present.
- ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials This link opens in a new windowATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials contains records of journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, dissertations, reports, commentaries, and obituaries related to religion from 1949 to present and a few from the 19th century.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowThis multidisciplinary database provides access to over 5,600 active full-text journals and over 6,500 open access journals. Covers topics that range from business, education, social sciences, humanities, engineering, and science. Coverage varies, updates also vary.
- OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowA multidisciplinary database providing indexing, abstracts, and full text from six of H.W. Wilson's full-text databases: Education Full Text, General Science Full Texts, Humanities Full Text, Readers' Guide Full Text, Social Sciences Full Text, and Business Full Text. Also available are full-text articles from five periodical databases: Applied Science & Technology, Art, BIological & Agricultural Index, Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, and Library Literature & Information Science. Indexing begins 1982, Abstracts 1984, and Full-text coverage 1994. Updated daily.
4. Primary Sources
Most likely you have one or two primary sources from your previous secondary research. If you find you need more, following the directions in the Primary Sources tab.
5. Refine and Repeat
Research is iterative. Depending on where your search takes you, you will have to return to any of these steps as you work through the research process.