Religious Studies 255 : Religion in America
Background Information
Books are listed in call number order. In addition to the sources listed below there are a number of encyclopedias and dictionaries for specific religious traditions, for example, The New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Native American Shamanism, The Encyclopedia of African American Religions, The New Encyclopedia of Judaism, Historical Dictionary of Methodism, and many more.
The Encyclopedia of Religion. 15 vols.
Ref. [q.] BL31 .E46 2005
Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion.
Ref. BL2525 .B45 1998
Contemporary American Religion. 2 vols.
Ref. [q.] BL2525 .C65 2000
Encyclopedia of Religion in American Politics.
Ref. [q.] BL2525 .E52 1999
Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience: Studies of Traditions and Movements. 3 vols.
Ref. [q.] BL2525 .E53 1987
The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions.
Ref. BL2525 .L49 2002
Handbook of Denominations in the United States.
Ref. BL2525 .M425
The Encyclopedia of American Religious History. 2 vols.
Ref. BL2525 .Q44 1996
Dictionary of American History. 10 vols.
Ref. [q.] E174 .D52 2003
The Oxford Companion to United States History.
Ref. E174 .O94 2001
Encyclopedia of American Social History. 3 vols.
Ref. HN57 .E58 1993
Reader's Guide to American History.
Ref. [q.] Z1236 .R43 1997
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Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try Title begins with, Author, Subject begins with or Keyword Anywhere searching.
Title begins with
These searches will let you see if we own an item whose title you already know. This search works for titles of books, titles of scores, titles of movies, titles of journals (but not individual journal articles) and more.
Author
Use this search to find works created by the person named. Be sure to enter the last name first. Author searches work for individual writers, composers, directors, and for groups or entities like organizations or government agencies.
Subject begins with
Try a Subject begins with search for an idea or concept like United States--religion or Religion and politics--United States. LUCIA will list other subject headings (and subheadings) which may be of interest. For advanced research you should consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH, a guide to the terms commonly used in catalogs like ours. The LCSH can be found on top of the Ready Reference shelves behind the reference desk on the first floor of the library. Just a few of the headings you may find useful include
- Freedom of religion -- United States
- Religious minorities -- United States
- Spirituality -- United States
- United States -- Religious life and customs
Keyword Anywhere
In this type of search, LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. Try a search for a phrase using quotation marks, as in "Catholic worker". You can perform Boolean searches in LUCIA like "United States" and religio*. In this search, LUCIA will look for all records containing the phrase United States. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search all its records for all words starting with religio: religion, religions, religious, etc. Then LUCIA returns a list of all the records that contain the phrase United States and all forms of the word religio. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH, or try targeting your keyword search by telling LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records, by using the Subject Keyword option. For example, compare a Keyword Anywhere search with a Subject Keyword search for "United States" and religio*.
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system which organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. Materials not owned by the Mudd library or the Appleton Public Library can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. See a reference librarian if you need help.
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Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your focus. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options. Two of our resources, JSTOR and Project MUSE provide complete full text. Some of our indexes include:
ATLA Religion Database
Includes both full text journals and links to other sources.
ATLA Search tips
- Use AND to search for more than one concept at a time.
Example: religion and dissent will retrieve records containing both terms. - Use OR to search for synonymous terms.
Example: church or cathedral will retrieve records containing either term but not necessarily both. - Use truncation (*) to represent one or more characters at the end of a term
Example: prophe* will retrieve records with the terms prophet, prophets, prophetic, prophecy, etc. - Use search limits to narrow your search.
Example: selecting Publication Type: Review will retrieve only book reviews.
EBSCOhost.
Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web. EBSCOhost provides a single Web source for multiple databases; you might want to select the Academic Search Elite or America: History and Life.. Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals.
Newspapers:
America's Historical Newspapers
Provides full-page images of newspapers dating from 1690 to the early 20th century.
Lexis/Nexis Academic
Provides newswires, citations, abstracts, and more.
New York Times. 1851-current.
Considered to be the American paper of record.
New York Times (1851-2004)
Current issues of the New York Times are available from many sources: see BESS or ProQuest Newspapers below.
ProQuest Newspapers
Provides access to over 300 local, national, and international newspapers, most in full-text. Dates for backfiles vary by title.
For details that will help you evaluate the magazine, journals, and newspapers you find, you may want to look at Magazines for Libraries, a reference book that gives publication and circulation information on a wide variety of publications. It can be found at Ref. Z6941 q.M23. You may also find Ulrich's Periodicals Directory Online helpful. See a reference librarian if you need help.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, try the 
button to see if that particular article is available. If you don't find it, you can double check by looking in LUCIA for the title of the journal or newspaper to see if the library owns it. You can also search BESS, an automated search of the library's full text databases, for electronic copies of articles. Materials not owned by the Mudd library or the Appleton Public Library can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Again, see a reference librarian if you need help.
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Other Useful Sources
Some of the sources listed here will be useful as secondary sources, but will also be useful as primary sources. Be sure to see the research guide for History 650: The Practice of History--Primary Sources for more ideas on the latter. The newspaper sources listed above will also be helpful.
American Broadsides and Ephemera
Pamphlets, flyers, and more printed between 1760 and 1900.
JSTOR
JSTOR includes full-text of over 320 journals. Although JSTOR does not include the most recent years of any given title, it does have all issues back to the first volume, in many cases going back into the 1800's.
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1907) and Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-1994).
Index articles from popular magazines.
Reference Indexes
Early American Imprints. Documents covering every aspect of American life during the early decades of the United States.
Series I: Evans (1639-1800)
Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819)
North American Women's Letters & Diaries
"Includes the immediate experiences of 442 women, as revealed in approximately 50,000 pages of diaries and letters" dating from the Colonial era to 1950. Searchable by authors, sources, years, personal events, and historical events.
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Biographical Information
The sources listed here are in alphabetical order by title, as both paper and electronic sources will be helpful. These will be useful for finding out about historians and other authors of secondary materials as well as historical figures. Be alert when searching non-western names or names of rulers, as you may need to use varying forms of these names.
American National Biography. 1999. 24 vols.
The major national biography covering persons important in the history of the United States.
Ref. CT213 .A68 1999
The online American National Biography includes biographical information on more 17,400 men and women.
Biography and Genealogy Master Index.
An electronic version of the printed index, containing citations to useful information in standard biographical sources. It is a great place to begin searching for biographical information about anyone.
Contemporary Authors. Available through the Literature Resource Center
Provides personal data, career highlights, lists of writings, and works in progress on contemporary authors. The individuals included range from newspaper and television reporters to editors and columnists to novelists and screenwriters.
Who's Who on the Web
An online version of Who's Who in America as well as several other versions, including Who’s Who in American Education and Who’s Who in the World. Be sure to click the Log Off button when you finish with this resource.
To find biographical books about a certain person, search in LUCIA for the person using the Subject begins with option, with the last name first for standard western names. Browse through the subject headings to find the subheading which corresponds to your specific interests. Again, be alert when searching non-western names or names of rulers, as you may need to use varying forms of these names. Many times, LUCIA has cross-references for these.
For autobiographical books by and about a certain person, search in LUCIA for person as Author. Be sure to consult the library's guide on Biographical Information for further ideas and information.
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Web Resources
Internet Resources for Religious Studies
From the library.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
Contains a wealth of information on religion in America. Includes discussions of issues like bioethics and the death penalty, Religious News, a list of recent headlines, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, and many other publications.
Official Denominational Web Sites
From the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
The Pluralism Project
Emerging from the work of Diana Eck at Harvard University, the Pluralism Project now includes resources like the Religious Diversity News. Includes resources under America's Many Religions that link to definitions, religious centers, statistics, and more.
Voice of the Shuttle: Religious Studies Page
Voice of the Shuttle is one of the best-known and widely respected listings of Web
resources in the humanities.
Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:
It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources, or this bibliography on Evaluation of Information Sources. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.
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Style Manuals
Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.
The Chicago Manual of Style.
A standard source for bibliographic format.
RRef. Z253 .U69 2003
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to
other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
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About Research for Religious Studies
Material related to the topic of this course may be drawn from many fields besides religious studies; be prepared to look at materials from history, philosophy, and cultural studies, just to name a few. Besides consulting catalogs and indexes, be sure to look at bibliographies supplied at the end of relevant articles, chapters, and books, and to search library catalogs for book-length bibliographies.
Your sources must be fully documented in any written work you produce. It may help to look at the information on style before you start your research, so that you will have all the required documentation at hand when you need it. Then as you write, go back to the resources on style for details on the exact format of your citations.
The sources listed in this guide were chosen for the broad coverage they provide. Direct links are provided to Internet resources and searchable databases, as well as links to LUCIA, the library's online catalog. Be sure to check the library's Electronic Resources page regularly to see new databases and indexes; some of these will only be available to users on the Lawrence campus. Also, you may want to take a look at guides on related topics from the Library Research Guides page.
Evaluating the resources you find is an essential part of the research process. See this guide to hints on evaluation of books and articles and this guide to evaluating Internet resources.
As always, if you have any questions be sure to ask a Reference Librarian.
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Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready reference, shelves behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and M class scores; at end of classes in other collections
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