Lavery Library: St. John Fisher College

INTRODUCTION
The study of the Middle East (or the Near East as it used to be called) has gained popularity as the area has become more important economically and politically. This is a selection of reference materials in Lavery Library on the history, politics, and culture of an area that variously includes Turkey, Iran, and Israel, as well as the Arabic-speaking countries: Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, The Gulf States, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco. It does NOT include materials that deal with Islam beyond these boundaries. Please see the related subject guide World History as well.

FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Reference Books are located on the Main Level of Lavery Library.

Reference books provide background information to help you understand your topic, narrow your topic, or prepare an outline of your topic. They also help define terms related to your topic, provide assistance in the selection of subject terms for your database searches, and contain factual information, such as, statistics, biographies, and maps.

SELECTED PRINT REFERENCES SOURCES:

Encyclopedias
DS44.C37 1988 REF
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Middle East and North Africa

DS57.C55 1995 REF
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East

DS113.6.E53 2000 REF
The Encyclopedia of the Palestinians

DS119.7.11544 1996 REF
An Historical Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

DS56.O9 1997 REF
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East

DS35.095 1995 REF
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World

Dictionaries
DS43.1157 1996 REF
Dictionary of the Middle East

DS37.553 1987 REF
Political Dictionary of the Arab World

Handbooks
DS61.B3 1984 REF
A Middle East Studies Handbook

DS49.M5 1991 REF
The Middle East and North Africa

Atlases
DS36.85.A39 1986 REF
The Cultural Atlas of Islam

G1785.F3 1991 REF
The Atlas of the Arab World

G2205.C3 1987 REF
The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East & North Africa

Chronology
DS63.18.P65 2001
A Political Chronology of the Middle East

Biographies
DS61.P65 1990 REF
Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary.

DS62.4.553 1991 REF
The Biographical Dictionary of the Middle East

FIND BOOKS IN LAVERY LIBRARY AND BEYOND
The key to the library's extensive book collection is the Library Catalog. It may be searched by Author, Title, Subject, or Keyword. Subject headings are established by the Library of Congress. If you have any trouble selecting a Subject heading for your topic, try a Keyword search or check the listings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings red books (Z 695 .L69 2001 REF) in the Reference area near the main floor computers.

Subject Headings which may be useful to you for which may be useful to you for Middle Eastern History are:

Arab Countries
Arabic Peninsula
Islam
Islamic Countries
Middle East
Near East
Africa, North
[name of country]--History

SUBJECTS with the subdivision Arab, Islamic, or Muslim
Art-- Islamic
Women-- Muslim.

If you would like to browse in the Middle East section, the main call numbers include:

Middle East History and Culture DS30's DS70's
Ancient Middle East History/Archaeology N53's or GN85's

Circulating books are all located on the Upper Level.

Link to the Library Catalog from the library's home page http://library.sjfc.edu

Find books in Other Libraries by selecting Library Catalog from the library's home page, then select Other Library Catalogs.

Search the world for books by selecting WorldCat from the databases listed under Research Databases. From the library's home page, select Research Tools, select Research Databases, then select WorldCat from the alphabetized list.

To order a book from another library use the online Interlibrary Loan form, accessible from the library's home page http://library.sjfc.edu.

FIND ARTICLES AND MORE
Lavery Library subscribes to an extensive collection of Research Databases that may be used to search for articles on your topic in periodicals, newspapers, and book chapters. Periodicals include both scholarly journals and popular magazines. When researching for courses in your major, it is usually recommended that you use scholarly articles, also referred to as peer reviewed or refereed articles. Databases will often allow you to limit your search to scholarly articles.

If the article cited on the database that you are using does not appear in full-text on the database, check Periodical Holdings to determine if the periodical is either full-text on another database or available in hard copy in the library's collection. From the library's home page, select Research Tools, then select Research Databases.

Research Databases are listed both alphabetically and by subject on the library's home page. When starting research in Middle East Studies, the following databases are recommended:

Historical Abstracts
JSTOR
Expanded Academic
Proquest Databases

Link to Subject Listing of databases available for Humanities and Art

FIND WEBSITES
When using websites for research it is very important to evaluate their authority and content. Use the following checklist to evaluate sites before using them as references.

Evaluating Web Sites Checklist

Your liaison librarian has provided a list of quality websites for Middle Eastern History. They are available on the library's home page under "Selected Websites". Select History, under World History, select Middle East History.

To search for additional websites, start with Google - http://www.google.com.

Marianne Simmons

Lavery Library

msimmons@sjfc.edu