Online resources
One of the most important parts of a research paper is finding and accessing pertinent sources. These may be primary (original) or secondary (scholarly) sources. In the old days, you'd hunker down with a million books and read through their bibliographies and find those books and read through their bibliographies, and spend lots of time getting to know the card catalogues: no longer! UCR subscribes to a number of databases, and there is also a great deal of public domain material on the internet. Of course, you can search "Google" for your paper topic, but you'll want to find the most recent scholarly sources and many campus resources can help you with that. (Unless otherwise noted, the following electronic sources are only available from UCR-linked terminals; to connect to UCR resources from your home computer, see instructions here). (note: Links to databases have been removed for archived webpage.)
The catalogue of the UCR libraries, often a useful first step to find out what we have on campus. (Available from any terminal.)
The combined catalogue of all UC campuses. If you find a source you need, but it is not available at UCR, Interlibrary Loan is usually fast and efficient and directly accessible through Melvyl. (Available from any terminal.)
WorldCat
An online catalogue of pretty much every library in the world, with direct links to Interlibrary Loan so you can request items directly from its database.
ATLA Religion Database
Gives references to articles, essays, books, book chapters, and book reviews, primarily in English but also in some European languages. To see if you can access the text of an article online directly, or to see if the resources is available at UCR (through Scotty) or at another California campus (through Melvyl) click on the orange "UC-eLinks" button.
Web of Science
A citation index, often useful in tracking down works on particular subjects and also creating bibliographies by seeing who has cited "classic" works on a subject. Although less reliable, the citation index will also catalogue primary sources (e.g., "Life of Antony").
JSTOR: The scholarly journal archive
A database of full-text files of many, many scholarly journals: a great place to start, although do note that most journals have a "moving wall" so that articles newer than five years (or so) will not be included in the database.
Other databases
Skim through the list of databases to which UCR subscribes: you'll find many topics (art, literature, music, history) that might be useful resources for your object of study. If you are studying a recent figure of sainthood, even the newspaper databases might be useful to you.
The Internet Sacred Text Archive
This collection of "sacred texts" (understood very broadly) might be a good resource for finding primary source materials. Remember, many of these texts have been scanned in and contain errors: if the site refers to a print reference from which the digital version has been derived, it's a good idea to track down that print reference, as well.
Online encyclopedias like Wikipedia have limited value: their contents usually combine public domain encyclopedias with information that has been input directly by readers and is therefore not necessarily reliable. While you might decide to start at a site like Wikipedia for very general information, do not trust that information and certainly do not cite it in a paper for this class.
Print resources
As you will learn if you haven't already, "B" is the home of religion works in the Library of Congress cataloguing system. Sometimes, the best way to find resources in print is to browse the stacks.
For materials we don't have at UCR, you should become familiar with the Interlibrary Loan process. When you find a book resource in Melvyl or Worldcat (see links above) that we don't have at UCR, click on the "ILL" link and fill out the requested information (you'll need your ID number for your UCR Card). If you find an article or essay resource not available at UCR through ATLA, click on the "UC-elinks" orange button; if we don't have that resources, there will be a link that says "Request." Usually the Interlibrary Loan office is able to send PDF files of requested essays or articles.
Resources on Early Christianity
This course does not require any significant background in the study of early Christianity. Nonetheless, if you wish to fill in your historical background, you may find the following resources helpful:
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity
Henry Chadwick, The Early Church
________, The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great
Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 1: From Origins to Constantine
A People's History of Christianity, vol. 2: Late Ancient Christianity
Gillian Clark, Christianity and Roman Society
Philip Rousseau, The Early Christian Centuries
(Other volumes available in Prof. Jacobs' library)