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.
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.
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
Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content
Currency: the timeliness of the information
Purpose: the reason the information exists
Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs
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.