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Santa Clara UniversityUniversity Library

TESP 4 - The Christian Tradition - Sources and Citations

Workshop Goals Today

Welcome! In the workshop today, you will have the opportunity to:

  1. Learn about the Saint John's Bible and the history of medieval bibles
  2. Practice using the MLA Handbook to guide your citation style
  3. Learn different ways to search for peer-reviewed articles through the SCU Library

Pop Quiz!

Can you correctly cite this volume in the Saint John's Bible in MLA Style?

Post your citation on this Padlet.

Made with Padlet

It's Critical: Access Peer Reviewed Information Through the Library

Library-provided databases are part of that 90% of information found only in the deep web.

The SCU Library subscribes to hundreds of these databases that are hidden in the deep web.

You have three options to access these databases:

  1. Use the library's website to access the list of databases and select one to enter and search within (see image below indicating where to navigate)
  2. Click the direct link to the databases page to access the list and pick one
  3. Use the list of Religious Studies Best Bet databases to pick a database, enter it, and search

On the library's website, select the 4th tab titled, databases

Finding Sources

Pick a database

A couple good options:

Construct your search

An example:

Refine if necessary

Do you need peer-reviewed journal articles? Are you looking for popular/background sources? Use the database limiters on the left side of the interface.

Evaluate results

Know your topic well to know what to pick when you look over your results.

How long is the article? Who wrote the article? What does the abstract say about the article?

Save/cite articles that look good

Use the built-in tools to save the permalink, generate a citation, and more. This is important for eventually creating your bibliography.

If you're using OSCAR to find books, you will have to make a citation by hand most likely (there is not a built-in citation generator in OSCAR).

Activity: Post An Article in MLA Style

Activity Instructions

Find an article in ATLA Religion Database that is about something you've discussed in class recently or that interests you related to the Christian tradition. Post the citation for the article  in correct MLA style on the Padlet at the top of this page.

We'll see who did it correctly!