Getting Started with Research for SPAN370
- Need a review of Hekman Library basics? Check out this "Get Connected" guide and our Hekman Library how-to Youtube channel.
- If you're off-campus, remember to start at the library homepage when connecting to databases and ebooks, so you'll be recognized as a Calvin user (when you're prompted to login, enter your Calvin username and passphrase).
- Struggling with citations? For more help, see the library's longer Citation 101 guide or try using Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab)
Explore Book Resources
Recommended Research Databases
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)
Coverage on a wide range of topics. Includes peer-reviewed full text for STEM research, as well as for the social sciences and humanities.
- ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials (EBSCO)
ATLA is an index of journal articles, essays, and book reviews in the areas of biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religious perspectives on social issues, among other topics. The database provides coverage from 1949 to the present and retrospective indexing for some journals as far back as the nineteenth century. See also ATLAS for Alumni.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online provides authoritative information about authors from all time periods and from all parts of the world while placing them in the larger perspective of literary history.
This online set provides access to all volumes of the Dictionary of Literary Biography series, the Dictionary of Literary Biography Documentary Series, and the Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook. - Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
Historical Abstracts is the definitive index of literature covering world history (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present. Indexing thousands of journals in over 40 languages, it is an invaluable bibliographic database for history students. Topics include military history, women’s history, history of education, and much more.
- JSTOR
JSTOR is a database consisting of full-text articles from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals from nearly every discipline taught at Calvin. Coverage for each journal begins with the first volume, with coverage ending for most titles three and five years ago. A growing number of journals now have coverage up to the present.
- MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the MLA International Bibliography is the definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present. International in scope, it includes citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations, with links to full text in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and other resources.
- Project Muse
Project MUSE offers full-text current and archival articles from 600+ scholarly journals from major university presses covering literature and criticism, history, performing arts, cultural studies, education, philosophy, political science, gender studies, and more. Updated continually.
Available to Calvin Alumni.
Explore Resources for Primary Sources
- DPLA (Digital Public Library of America)A one-stop portal to a wide range of open access materials from many libraries
- EuropeanaAccess to millions of cultural heritage items from institutions across Europe. Discover artworks, books, music, and videos on art, newspapers, archaeology, fashion, science, sport, and much more.
- History of Spain: Primary Documents (from Euro-docs)Provides online documents and transcriptions for European history.
- Internet ArchiveThe Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, people with print disabilities, and the general public. For some resources you will need to create an account to borrow the digital books.
- Internet Medieval SourcebookThe Internet History Sourcebooks Project, a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly for educational use. From the outset the site took a very broad view of the sources that should be available to students and as well as documents long associated with a "western civilization" approach to history also provides much information on Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history.
- Libro (Library of Iberian Resources Online)The Library of Iberian Resources Online (LIBRO) is a joint project and its primary task is to make available to users the best scholarship about the peoples and nations of the Iberian peninsula with a focus on peninsular history from the 5th to the 17th centuries. The texts are principally drawn from recent, but out-of-print university press monographs. In addition, the collection includes a number of basic texts and sources in translation.
- Online Medieval Sources BibliographyProvides detailed information about modern editions - both in print and online - of medieval primary sources.
- Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES)El Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES) or Spanish Archives Portal is the main platform used to disseminate Spain's historical document heritage, created and managed by the State Archives Department of the Ministry of Culture. It contains information sheets and digitised images of the historical documents held in the State Archives and new content is continually being added.
- Proyecto Estudios IndianosThe Proyecto Estudios Indianos is an interdisciplinary research group on the American viceroyalties with a global perspective.
- Virtual Library of Bibliographic Heritage (BVPB)The Virtual Library of Bibliographic Heritage (BVPB), managed by the General Subdirectorate for Library Coordination under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, is a digital library offering the public access to a valuable and growing collection of digitised facsimiles of manuscripts, printed books, historical photographs, cartographic material, musical scores, and other material that is housed in memory institutions (archives, libraries and museums) and forms part of Spain’s bibliographic heritage.