It can be tricky to find books by topic using online catalogs. Browsing the shelves often will prove more effective than searching online; also be sure to use cited works for clues to valuable books, since in references you often find connections that are not visible searching by keywords or subjects. In this library, books are shelved using the Library of Congress classification system. If you are wondering what a cataloger might use for a subject heading, you can search the Library of Congress Authority Files. Or use the subjects heading lists kept under the dictionary by the computer cluster in the front of the library (aka "the big red books")

WebPals
Our catalog; also searches a number of other libraries.

MnLink
A shared catalog for Minnesota libraries; choose search, then under the map, choose to search college and university libraries. The advantage of this catalog is that it includes the University of Minnesota--the largest research collection in the region. Use the "request" button to make interlibrary loan requests for books that aren't in our collection.

WorldCat
The mondo-catalog. Searches thousands of libraries world-wide. Note: many of the things you find here will not be available even through interlibrary loan.

Good places to check facts, get concise overviews, and find out what the most influential texts are. Check with a reference librarian to see what reference books are available on your topic. The following are examples:

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 10 vols. London: Routledge, 1998. (REF B 51 .R68 1998 and online.)

Encyclopedia of Religion. 16 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1986. (REF BL 21 .E46 1986)

Encyclopedia of Women and World Religions. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan Reference, 1999. (REF BL 458 .E53 1999)

Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 13 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1982. (REF D 114 .D5 1982)

Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. 4 vols. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. (REF B 802 .E53 2002)

Oxford Encyclopedia of Reformation. 4 vols. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. (REF BR 3028 .O93 1996)

Women in World History. 17 vols. Detroit: Yorkin, 1999. (Ref HQ 1115 .W6 1999)

MLA Bibliography
The most in-depth index to scholarly literary analysis. Does not include book reviews; often leaves out emerging or popular writers who haven't been receiving much cred from the academy. Much of what you find here is only available through interlibrary loan. From the same start page, you might also be interested in searching the ATLA religion database.

In addition to journals shelved down on the first floor, the library has access to quite a number of journals online. You can check for a particular title using our full-text list. To see if we have a journal in print and to see which issues we have, check the catalog by the title of the journal and click on "location details."

JSTOR
An electronic archive of journals across the disciplines. Does not include current issues, but does cover journals back to their beginnings.

Project Muse
Another type of journal archive--this one containing only current issues of journals published by Johns Hopkins Univeristy Press.

• Plan ahead. You should allow several days at least for books and articles to arrive.
• You don't have to know which library has a book or article for us to order it. Just tell us what you need.
• We may have to get back to you in cases where we've exhausted our fair use rights for a journal under copyright law.
• You can order things online or by filling out paper request cards or by printing off a list of references, marking those you want to order. Include your ID card bar code and last name (which, for library purposes, is your password) on all orders. In the case of articles, you can opt to have it delivered to your desktop by checking the "electronic delivery" option online..

"You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians."  --Monty Python, "Gorilla Librarians"

• Tell the reference librarian what you need. Be up front about what you're looking for, how much time you're willing to invest, whether you want a small amount of stuff or as much as you can get, whether you want technical or lay information, and what you've tried already.
• Sometimes you don't have a definite question. It's perfectly okay to simply say, "Can you tell me what resources you have on -- ?" Or simply say, "Can you give me some pointers?"
• Be prepared for an interrogation. A good reference librarian wants to be sure she understands what you need. And if she starts giving you the wrong stuff or says something you don't understand, tell her so. Librarians are experts at finding information, but you're the expert at what you need.

Because of intellectual property laws, texts are bound by place. Though a book can be bought once and shared many times, the times a person (or library) can copy a text are severely limited. (Our library can only ask for copies of five articles from any single journal published within the most recent five years each year; we have to pay a coyright permission for the sixth article.) Database access, too, is restricted to those who are somehow identified by the institution as belonging to the place. That's why you can't go home and use our databases and catalogs unless you instruct your browser to recognize you as part of the Gustavus community. To do that, follow the instructions for off-campus access. It's not difficult--just means fiddling with a few settings.