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24/7 Research Help is Available
Undergraduate Learning Librarian
University Library
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
kbaughmanmcdowell@scu.edu
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 windowThis resource offers exclusive, authoritative research guides on Islamic Studies. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, these bibliographies guide researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of topics including history, religion, philosophy, anthropology, Arabic language and literature, as well as literatures in other languages including Persian, Turkish, and Urdu.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowAllows you to search for articles from over 600 different electronic reference books and also works as a gateway to a very wide array of other information sources, including images, audio and video. It is a really excellent place to begin research with 'Topic Pages' offering authoritative overviews and a Mind Map feature to assist in narrowing and focusing research and identifying keywords for 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.
- OSCAR - SCU 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 windowThis database covers the history of the world (except the United States and Canada) from 1450 forward. It provides selective indexing of historical articles from more than 1,800 journals in over 40 languages back to 1955, as well as access to the full text of more than 316 journals and more than 138 books.
- ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials This link opens in a new windowIndex to periodicals, research in ministry, book reviews in religion and Methodist reviews. 1949-present. Updated semi-annually. Includes online versions of the entire runs of a core collection of more than fifty significant scholarly periodicals in the field of religion, most of which go back to 1949.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowA multidisciplinary database providing access to more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. It also offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals. Covers a wide range of academic topics including business, education, social sciences, humanities, science, & engineering. Coverage varies, with some publications going back to 1911.
- OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowThis multi-disciplinary database provides the complete content - indexing, abstracts, and full text - from six of Wilson's full-text databases: Education Full Text, General Science Full Text, Humanities Full Text, Readers' Guide Full Text, Social Sciences Full Text, and Business Full Text. Full-text articles from five additional periodical databases are also included when available: Applied Science & Technology Full Text, Art Full Text, Biological & Agricultural Index, Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, and Library Literature & Information Science Full Text. Indexing begins in 1982, abstracts in 1984, and full-text coverage in 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.