Barnard College Library
 Research Guide

V3996: Classics Seminar
Professor Nancy Worman

 
Reference Books | Online Indexes and Databases
Web Sites | Request a Consultation

 

Searching CLIO
  • For a title search, leave off the initial article (the, an, le, etc.)
  • For an author search, put last name, then first name
  • For a keyword search, you must use and, or or not between the terms, or quotes for a phrase
  • Only use a uniform title search for anonymous works
  • In a keyword search with relevancy ranking, do not use and, or or not between the terms, but put + in front of terms that must be in the record; if + is not used, or is assumed
  • You can limit to books in the Barnard library using the More Limits or Post Limits options
  • Works on women's studies have call numbers starting with HQ.  Browse the shelves in the HQ section of the library

To find PRIMARY SOURCES, use these terms in your search: ARCHIVES, BIOGRAPHY (this includes autobiographies), CORRESPONDENCE, DIARIES, INTERVIEWS, SOURCES. Enter them as "any of these" in a Guided Keyword search, selecting Subject from the In: menu.

To find REFERENCE BOOKS, use these terms in your search: ABSTRACTS, BIBLIOGRAPHY, CATALOGS, DICTIONARIES, DIRECTORIES, ENCYCLOPEDIAS, HANDBOOKS, HISTORIOGRAPHY, INDEXES, MANUALS, MAPS, REGISTERS, RESOURCE GUIDES, STATISTICS. Enter them as "any of these" in a Guided Keyword search, selecting Subject from the In: menu. 

REFERENCE BOOKS

Title

Barnard Reference Call Number

Pythagoras : an annotated bibliography

B243 .N38 1990g
The Oxford classical dictionary DE5 .O9 2003
Late antiquity : a guide to the postclassical world DE5 .L29 1999
Civilization of the ancient Mediterranean : Greece and Rome DE59 .C55 1988
Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic tradition DF757 .E53 2000
Daily life of the ancient Romans DG78 .M385 2002
Nectar & ambrosia : an encyclopedia of food in world mythology GR498 .A53 2000
Encyclopedia of food and culture GT2850 .E53 2003
The Oxford companion to classical literature PA31 .H69 1989
Ancient writers : Greece and Rome PA3002 .A5 1982
Dictionary of literary themes and motifs PN43 .D48 1988
Classical and medieval literature criticism PN681.5 .C57

 

ONLINE INDEXES AND DATABASES

The Databases (Reference Works & Indexes) list, which you can access from the Barnard Library home page or Columbia LibraryWeb, gives links to indexes for finding citations to journal articles.  The citations in bold will probably be the most relevant to your research:

L' annee philologique
Citations for publications related to Greco-Roman antiquity; based on L'Annee Philologique, the key bibliographic resource for classicists.

Dissertation Abstracts (Digital Dissertations)
Citations and abstracts for dissertations and theses covering all academic subjects.

Humanities Full Text
Citations, abstracts, and full text for articles in humanities periodicals.

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
Citations for articles from over 100 countries in more than 90 languages, in the disciplines of anthropology, economics, political science and sociology, from 1951 to the present.

JSTOR
Full-text articles from more than 320 scholarly journals, from the first issue of each journal (including some started in the late nineteenth century) up to 3 to 5 years ago.  Only the science and social science articles have abstracts, so searching in the title is the most direct search for articles in humanities journals; searching for a term in the full text of an article will often find too many irrelevant articles     

MLA Bibliography -- citations for articles in literature, linguistics, language, and folklore periodicals and other publications.

Project Muse
Full-text articles from more than 100 scholarly journals in history and the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences

ProQuest Direct
Full-text articles and abstracts from newspapers and periodicals in many disciplines, including international affairs, law, psychology, public affairs, sociology, women's studies, from 1988 to the present.  For scholarly journals, click on "Databases selected" at top, clear all databases and select PA Research II Periodicals, click on "Continue" at top, and select Advanced Search.

Social Sciences Abstracts
Abstracts for journal articles on anthropology, business, community health, economics, foreign affairs, geography, international relations, law and criminology, medical care, political science, politics, psychiatry, psychology, public welfare, social work, and sociology, 1983 to the present.

Social Sciences Citation Index Expanded
Cited references, bibliographic information, and abstracts, with some links to full-text articles, in various areas including anthropology, communication, criminology & penology, demography, economics, education, ethnic studies, health policy & services, industrial relations & labor, international relations, planning & development, political science, psychology, public administration, public health, social sciences, transportation, urban studies, and womens studies, 1973 to the present.  Useful for tracing which authors cited a given article or book

WorldCat
Interface to the OCLC bibliographic database (36 million records).

 

USEFUL WEB PAGES

Barnard and Columbia Sites: Both the Barnard and Columbia Library home pages have lists of recommended Web pages on various topics.  These make a  good place to start with finding information on the World Wide Web.

The Librarians' Index to the Internet provides annotated and subject classified links to quality websites.

  • Perseus Digital Library Digital library of resources for the study of the ancient world. Originally begun with coverage of the Archaic and Classical Greek world, has now expanded to Latin text and tools, Renaissance materials, and Papyri. Contains hundreds of texts by the major ancient authors and lexica and morphological databases and catalog entries for over 2,800 vases, sculptures, coins, buildings, and sites, including over 13,000 photographs of such objects. (description from the Librarians' Index to the Internet)

 

Updated 11/02/2004
Jenna Freedman
Reference Librarian
Barnard College Library