FYE: Religious Responses to the Challenge of Suffering
Humanities Liaison Librarian
- Steve Lawson
- Tutt Library Room 173
- (in the Learning Commons,
off the Map Room) - (719) 389-6857
- Email me or Chat with me now
Buddha (detail) by Andy Warhol, c.1983. Image from ARTstor
Getting Started
You have some constraints on this paper: the group of religious traditions, the general topics, and kinds of materials you need to use have been chosen for you. I suggest you start with an idea of which tradition you are most interested in, and begin looking in encyclopedias and books as you decide on your topic.
Encyclopedias
Here are just a few suggestions. You will want to browse the reference section as well. Particularly for those working on Lakota topics, you may need to look outside the religion section and into history and anthropology.
- Encyclopedia of Religion in reference and online
- Encyclopedia of Buddhism in reference and online
- Handbook of North American Indians in reference
Finding Books
Browsing
Books about religion are assigned call numbers that begin with a B. The first part of the B call numbers is given to philosophy and psychology, with religion picking up at BL
Here is an overview of the call numbers for religion:
- BL Religions Mythology. Rationalism
- BL660-2680 History and principles of religions
- BL1100-1295 Hinduism
- BL1899-1942 Taoism
- BM Judaism
- BP Islam. Bahá‘ísm. Theosophy
- BQ Buddhism
- BR Christianity
- BS The Bible
- BT Doctrinal Theology
- BV Practical Theology
- BX Christian Denominations
Searching
Searching TIGER by keyword or subject is often the fastest way to find books about your topic.
For books that we don’t own here at Colorado College, or books that are checked out or otherwise unavailable, use Prospector - Colorado Unified Catalog . You’ll find books (and CDs, DVDs, etc.) in libraries across Colorado that you can request and have sent to the Tutt Library circulation desk where you can check them out.
For books not available in TIGER or Prospector, you can request through Interlibrary Loan via WorldCat .
Please ask a librarian if you need help with TIGER, Prospector, or WorldCat.
Finding Articles
The best source for finding articles (and book chapters) in religion is ATLA Religion Database With ATLASerials . You will also find many good articles in JSTOR , an online journal archive (see below).
Complete list of databases for religion
- ATLA Religion Database With ATLASerials
- Coverage: 1949 - current
- Contains more than a million citations from more than a thousand international titles and multi-author works in Religion. Spans over 50 years with selected records going back to 1818. Some full text.
- The Encyclopaedia Of Islam
- Coverage: historical
- Offers basic searching of the full-text of nearly 12,000 pages of volumes I to XI and Supplement (Volume XII) of the print edition.
- Humanities International Complete
- Coverage: 1929 - current
- A comprehensive humanities database, with almost 500 full text titles and indexing and abstracting for more than 1,700 titles. Subject areas include (but are not limited to) literature, philosophy, the arts, history, culture-oriented and multi-disciplinary humanities titles with some coverage going back as far as 1929. This database replaces Humanities Abstracts.
- Index Islamicus
- Coverage: 1906 - current
- Indexes books, journal articles, conference proceedings about Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Includes the other main Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, plus Muslim minorities elsewhere.
Online journal archives
Unlike the subject-specific article databases, these online journal archives don’t concentrate on any one academic subject. Instead, they take leading journals from many fields, or all the journals from one publisher, and provide extensive archives of the full text of those journals online, usually in the form of PDF files.
- Blackwell Journals
- Coverage: varies; usually late 1990's to current
- Searchable collection of full text periodicals. Scholarly sources.
- JSTOR
- Coverage: late 1800's - most recent 5 years
- Archival access to many scholarly periodicals. Jstor does not cover the most recent three years of most journals.
- Oxford University Press Journals
- Coverage: varies; usually late 1990's - current
- A searchable collection of full text periodicals. Scholarly sources.
- Periodicals Archive Online
- Coverage: 1770-1995
- Fulltext journal collection covering the humanities and social sciences. Includes 500 journal titles covering the first issue of the journal until 1995.
- Project Muse
- Coverage: 1993 - current
- Project Muse provides access to the full text of the Johns Hopkins University Press journals. Offers current and back issues.
Book reviews
There is no one perfect source for book reviews. If you are looking for a review of an academic book on religion, ATLA Religion Database With ATLASerials is still a great place to start. On the main search screen, you can use the “Publication type” limiter to limit results to just “reviews.” Or try one of these:
- Academic Search Premier
- Coverage: 1988 - current
- Provides access to basic journal index and some full text resources. Subject coverage is general and broad. Shows CC holdings.
- JSTOR
- Coverage: late 1800's - most recent 5 years
- Archival access to many scholarly periodicals. Jstor does not cover the most recent three years of most journals.
- LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe
- Coverage: 1977 - current
- Access to popular press material such as newspaper articles. Also contains law review articles.
- Periodicals Index Online
- Coverage: 1665- 1995
- Periodicals Index Online is an electronic index to the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues. Every article is indexed. Mostly citations. Full image access to a select number of journal runs.
- Social Sciences Abstracts
- Coverage: 1983 - current
- International, English-language periodicals in sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, political science, and law.