Finding & Focusing a Topic: Encyclopedias, Companions & General Histories
The Library has a large number of subject specific online encyclopedias with short, well-written overview essays. These essays can be helpful in defining and focusing a topic. They generally have bibliographies which include the important authors who have published on the subject. The Library has too many encyclopedias to list them all. To discover encyclopedias with essays on your topic, go to the catalog, select Articles & more, type keywords which describe your topic into the searchbox and select the format facet Reference on the results screen (see screenshot below) or browse selected encyclopedias on the History Subject Guide.
- Encyclopedia of Ancient History
Geographic coverage: ancient Near East, pharaonic Egypt, classical Greece, Roman empire.
- Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery
Vol. 1: 2,000 B.C. - 699 A.D.
Learn about calendars, mathematics, medicine, architecture, agriculture and more of ancient civilizations.
- Daily Life in ... [ancient civilizations] Series
The Library has volumes about daily life in Mayan, Aztec, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Babylonian society.
- Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
Vol. 3: Origins, 4,200 BCE - 529 CE, pp. 45-497
Learn about calendars, wheels, numerals, papyri, clay and more of ancient civilizations.
searches in the Library's catalog are good starting points when first exploring a topic. Search results can be narrowed with facets
such as topic, era, language
. Facets are located on the right hand side of the results screen.
Examples of Library of Congress subjects:
Mayas - Calendar
Agriculture - Origin
Examples of keyword searches:
architecture and Mesopotamia
Mayas and writing
A catalog of library holdings worldwide. WorldCat will indicate any local library holdings and also offers an inter-library loan request option.
E-ZBorrow and Interlibrary Loan
Interlibrary loans are only available for books and journals which are not owned by Falvey. The E-ZBorrow service can be used for books which the library owns, but which are currently checked out. E-ZBorrow books are provided by a local library network and tend to arrive faster than interlibrary loans.
JSTORJSTOR is an archive of important core journals in the humanities. Current content is not available. JSTOR indicates which years are covered.The Advanced Search feature has journal limits by discipline such as Classical Studies and Archaeology. You can further limit to keywords in title, abstract, or author field. Item type, language and publication date range are other available search limits.
Trying to decipher a journal abbreviation?
Check the journal abbreviations lists below for the full journal title:
Abbreviations for titles of Classical/Medieval Studies journals (Indiana University Libraries, based on L'Annee Philologique)
Bibliographical Abbreviations (compiled for the Egyptologists' Electronic Forum)
Library Catalog / Articles & more
Find scholarly journal articles by selecting Articles & more from the drop down menu of the Library's search box. Enter your keywords and limit search results to peer-reviewed journals and journal articles.
Citing Your Sources
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Last Modified: Wednesday, February 13th, 2013