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FYS Sharing Holy Land: Start Here

Library research tips for Professor Saenger's FYS
Negotiating Jerusalem
Jerusalem: city of longing
Contested Sites in Jerusalem: the Jerusalem Old City Initiative
Fodor's Essential Israel
Contested Holy Places in Israel-Palestine: sharing and conflict resolution
Encyclopedia of Sacred Places
Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant: the holiest cities of Islam
Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites
Sacred Space: shrine, city, land
One Thousand Roads to Mecca: ten centuries of travelers writing about the Muslim pilgrimage
Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's sacred esplanade
The Hajj and Europe in the Age of Empire
Walking Where Jesus Walked: American Christians and Holy Land pilgrimage

Searching WorldCat@SU

WorldCat@SU allows users to search the catalog and multiple article databases at once. Create a list of keywords for your topic by thinking of synonyms and related words or concepts. Then use WorldCat@SU to search by keyword and find print and electronic resources at Smith Library Center and libraries worldwide.

Search Tip:  When you find a good book, open the Description (located in the full record) to find related subject headings. Subject headings are standardized tags that describe the content of an item. Results using subject headings are more precise than results from a keyword search.

The book covers in the scrolling gallery all link directly to the book record in WorldCat@SU. Go to the record and open Description to get a sense of useful subject headings for this course.

Searching databases for articles

Another way to find articles is to use a database. 

WorldCat@SU only finds a fraction of the articles available through our databases. Databases allow you to search specifically for articles. Not only do databases find more articles, they provide more precise search tools than WorldCat, yielding better results.

Multidisciplinary, with full-text articles from academic journals, magazines, and newspapers.  Search Tip #1: View an article's full record to read the abstract, or summary, and quickly decide if it is useful for your research.  Search Tip #2: Use the subject links from the full record to find additional articles.

A multi-disciplinary database with scholarly, full-text content. Coverage goes all the way back to the 19th century, but there is no current content for many journals. 

A collection of significant religion and theology journals representing all major faiths.

Current scholarly articles, 100% full-text, interdisciplinary. 

Evaluating websites

Evaluate websites for Authority, Accuracy, Currency, Relevancy, and Purpose, particularly if you are going to use one as a source.

Search Tips #1: A Google search for jerusalem, or even jerusalem sacred sites, results in a lot of links to commercial travel sites. Google's Advanced Search (found under Settings) allows you to limit your search by domain. Try a search using one of the following domains: .org (organization) or .edu (education) or .gov (government). Your results may still include a few travel sites, but will pull up other more interesting items such as Sacred Sites in the Holy Land: Historical and Religious Perspectives, a document published by the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation.

 

Search Tips #2: In Advanced Search you can also limit the domain by the internet country code for Israel -- .il, and to items in English, yielding an interesting set of Israeli sites.

Authority: the source of the information

  • Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?
  • Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?
  • What are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations?
  • What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?
  • Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address?
  • Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?
    • examples: .com (commercial), .edu (educational), .gov (U.S. government), .org (nonprofit organization), or .net (network)

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content

  • Where does the information come from?
  • Is the information supported by evidence?
  • Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
  • Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?
  • Does the language or tone seem unbiased and free of emotion?
  • Are there spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors?

Currency: the timeliness of the information

  • When was the information published or posted?
  • Has the information been revised or updated?
  • Is the information current or out-of date for your topic?
  • Are the links functional?

Purpose: the reason the information exists

  • What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?
  • Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
  • Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda?
  • Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
  • Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?

Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs

  • Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?
  • Who is the intended audience?
  • Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?
  • Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?
  • Would you be comfortable using this source for a research paper?

Cite your sources!

Always cite your sources! Providing a citation credits sources you use, and helps your paper's readers find these sources. For this class, you will use MLA citation style.

Purdue OWL's MLA Formatting and Style Guide covers the basics of MLA style. The Manual has more detailed information, and can be found in the Research Commons and on Reserve.

           

Clicking the SU Bike icon will take you to the Research Hub.