IRIS: Finding Books

IRIS is the online catalog for all the Rutgers University Libraries except the Newark and Camden Law Libraries. Use IRIS to find out if the Rutgers Libraries have the specific books or journals that you need, or to locate books on topics that you're researching.

When you bring up IRIS, it is automatically set to do a WORDS anywhere search.

"WORDS anywhere" looks for words found anywhere within a title; within the subject headings; within the list of author names; etc.

However, if you are looking for a specific title, or a specific author's name, or a specific subject heading within IRIS, you will usually want to use the pull-down menu to change your search type from "WORDS anywhere" to "TITLE begins with," or "AUTHOR (last name first)," or "SUBJECT begins with."

A "begins with" search looks for your search terms as a phrase beginning with the first word entered in an alphabetical list of authors, titles, subjects or other headings.

When searching IRIS and other academic library catalogs, some relevant Subject Headings might be:

LIBRARIES HISTORY

LIBRARIES HISTORY TO 400

LIBRARIES HISTORY 400-1400

LIBRARIES UNITED STATES HISTORY

LIBRARIES AND THE INTERNET

READING HISTORY

BOOKS AND READING HISTORY

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Finding Articles and More: Indexes and Databases

Academic Search Premier
The Libraries' general, multidisciplinary periodical index. Many articles available in full-text within the database. Rutgers-restricted access

Library Literature & Information Science
Index to articles and book reviews published in library and information science journals. Includes many full-text articles.Rutgers-restricted access

Book History Online: International Bibliography of the History of the Printed Book and Libraries
Index to book and article titles on the history of the printed book worldwide. Online counterpart to the Annual Bibliography of the History of the Printed Book and Libraries; contains all ABHB entries from 1990 onward. Published by the National Library of the Netherlands for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

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The Ancient World: Some Basic Resources

Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome. Edited by Michael Grant and Rachel Kitzinger. New York, 1988. 3 volumes.
97 signed essays on topics relating to Greece and Rome from prehistory to the fall of Rome. Arranged by broad catagories , e.g., government, technology, economics, religion, social and family life, the arts, etc. Extensive bibliographies. A good place to find background materials as well as references for your topic.
Dana Call Number: Ref. DE59 .C55 1988.

Ancient Greece and Rome: A Bibliographic Guide. Compiled by Keith Hopwood. New York, 1995.
Selective, classified listing of some 8,000 English-language books and articles relating to the history of the ancient world from c. 950 BC to AD 565.
Dana Call Number: Ref. DE86 .A67 1995.

Perseus Ditigal Library
The Perseus Classics Collection is an extensive digital library of resources for the study of Ancient Greece and Rome. The collection includes hundreds of searchable works by classical Greek and Roman authors, both in the original language and in translation, as well as thousands of images of architecture, sculpture, coins, vases, and sites, maps, and a number of important secondary sources including the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, the full Liddell-Scott-Jones Lexicon of Classical Greek, and an on-line edition of the Lewis and Short Latin Dictionary.

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The Medieval World: Some Basic Resources

Scholarly encyclopedias can give you an overview of a topic as well as some basic bibliography

Dictionary of the Middle Ages . 13 volumes. New York, 1982-2003.
About 5000 signed articles, with bibliographies, on all aspects of medieval civilization from about 500 to 1500 AD. An excellent starting point for research! [Sample Pages]
DANA Call Number: Ref. D114.D5 1982

Clement, Richard W. "Medieval and Renaissance Book Production - Manuscript Books," IN The ORB On-line Reference Book for Medieval Studies, 1997.

Clement, Richard W. "Medieval and Renaissance Book Production - Printed Books," IN The ORB On-line Reference Book for Medieval Studies, 1997.

Bibliographies are great for finding out what has been written/is available on a specific topic.

Crosby, Everett Uberto. Medieval Studies: A Bibliographic Guide. New York, Garland, 1983.
The standard guide to scholarly literature. Lists majors collections of sources as well as important secondary sources. Entries include brief annotations. [Sample Page]
Dana Call Number: Ref. CB351 .C76 1983

Royal Historical Society Bibliography
Searchable bibliography of historical writing on Britain and Ireland from ancient times to the present. Over 400,000 entries.

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Corrections?
Natalie Borisovets (natalieb@andromeda.rutgers.edu)
John Cotton Dana Library
May 13, 2008