Guide to Social Science and Religion and Religious and Theological Abstracts

1. Guide to Social Science and Religion and Religious and Theological Abstracts

2. Accessing New Databases • The new databases can be accessed, like all AU databases, via the library catalog page. • The library catalog page is found at: http://library.ashland.edu • Click on “Research Databases, and scroll down to the appropriate database.

6. Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature • For more than 40 years, National Periodical Library as published the Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature. This publication provides essential data in such areas as: Religion, Psychology, the Arts, Sociology, Politics, Education, and more.   Guide to Social Science & Religion is essential to any organization dealing with research science, and to any individual utilizing research science to gather pertinent information.

7. Searching Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature • Click on the title in the list of databases. • Go to the search screen.

9. Searching Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature • You can search by keyword or subject. • To do a subject search, go to advanced search. • The subject terms are provided for you. • We will choose “Christian Education.” • As a subheading, we will choose “Higher learning.” • Note, there may be alternative subjects that you will want to search. • Above “Christian Education” is “Christian Day Schools.” • This subject may also be appropriate for some studies.

15. Searching Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature • You may also search by issue. • This will present a display that looks very much like a print copy.

18. Religious and Theological Abstracts • Religious and Theological Abstracts prepares summaries of articles from scholarly journals in the fields of Religion and Theology.  Summaries are composed from the core of volunteer abstractors located throughout the USA, Canada, and several other countries.  The variety of periodical literature includes Christian, Jewish and other World religions.  Religious and Theological Abstracts provides English language abstracts of articles in Hebrew, Afrikaans, and major European languages.  This helpful resource assists with any research pertaining to the fields of Religion and Theology.

19. Searching Religious and Theological Abstracts • Again, scroll down the database list to “Religious and Theological Abstracts.” • Click on title. • This action will take you to the home page. • On the Home page, click on “Search R & TA.” • You may either do key word searching, or advanced searching. • We will search for: Wesley, John. • Note, subjects need to be searched as key words.

25. Religious and Theological Abstracts • You will notice there are boxes in front of the titles. • You can mark (select) the boxes, and then view them. • The result is as follows. • Note that abstracts of foreign language materials are in English.

29. Usefulness of the new databases • Since we already subscribe to ATLA databases, why are we subscribing to these databases? • As a graduate library, it is essential that users, including faculty, have access to as many resources as possible. • ATLA databases do not cover everything. • In particular, the Guide to Social Science and Religion covers areas of social sciences that may be weak in ATLA, especially counseling.

30. Usefulness of new databases • Also, Religious and Theological Abstracts contain abstracts of materials. • These abstracts are often not in ATLA • The viewing of the abstracts enables the user to discern if something is useful. • Furthermore, there is a broader range of coverage than OT Abstracts or NT Abstracts. • Areas other than Bible are covered. • This is helpful for our users.

31. For Further Information • See the Research Library • Russell Morton • Phone: 419-289-5434 • Email: rmorton2@ashland.edu