HOW TO SEARCH
Terms from Middle Eastern languages often have variant transliterations in English. For example, shari'ah or shari'a or sharia or shari'at; muslim or moslem; and so on! To be comprehensive, search all of the forms you are aware of and connect them with or or truncate using * - for example shar* will bring all the above variants.

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LOCATING MATERIALS

Pegasus
To find books, journal titles, videos, and other materials in the UCSB library, use Pegasus.

Do KEYWORD searches

• example: sharia*; Hezbollah
• Click WORDS AS PHRASE for an exact phrase. Example: Middle Eastern women; Lebanese civil war; honor crime*
• Combine words or phrases to narrow results. Example: human rights (as phrase) AND Middle East (as phrase)
• Check out the SUBJECT HEADINGS on the records for the books you find to see if there are other terms and ways to search for books on your topic.

INDEXES TO ARTICLES, DOCUMENTS, ETC

To find journal articles you will need to use an article index. Finding articles is a two-step process. First, you need to find the citation to an appropriate article in an index and then you need to find the actual article by using UC e-Links, Pegasus, or the Electronic Journals List. Indexes to articles are found on the Library's RESEARCH page Online Resources. The searching methods will vary from index to index, but you will almost always find "help" or "tips" screens. Listed below are three indexes of particular importance for this class

Social Science Databases via CSA

• Covers many databases in the social sciences, included among these is the most important for Middle Eastern Studies: Index Islamicus
• Use * to truncate
• Click on Peer-reviewed tab to get academic journals
• Use UCeLinks to find the items
• Check out DESCRIPTORS for further searching

Academic Search Complete

• Indexes the major journals from most academic disciplines
• Includes citations, abstracts and some fulltext
• Use * to truncate
• Includes popular as well as scholarly so use tabs to limit results to peer-reviewed journals
• Limit by languages
• Use UCeLinks to find the items

CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)

• Full-text working papers from research institutes, NGOs, foundations, and proceedings from conferences
• Use * to truncate

Historical Abstracts

• Indexes articles, book chapters and books in history
• Includes helpful abstracts
• Can limit by language (to limit to English)
• Use * to truncate
• Use UCeLinks to find the items

Lexis Nexis Academic

• Access through Articles Indexes and Databases on Library Research page
• Use the tab labelled "Legal"
• Full-text articles from journals, law reviews, regulatory codes, etc.
• Use * for truncation

AccessUN

• Index to UN documents including Official Records, masthead documents, draft resolutions, meeting records, UN publications, and the UN Treaty Series citations. Full-text of several thousand documents

  Middle East Abstracts and Index - call no. REF DS41.M44

  • Indexes and abstracts journal articles, government documents, research reports, press releases, speeches, etc.
  • Strong social science emphasis
  • Includes Central and Inner Asia as well the Middle East-North African region
  • Vol. 20E (1997) is titled Women in the Middle East and North Africa

REFERENCE RESOURCES

Encyclopedias will give you a broad organized overview of your topic. The articles usually will include a bibliography in which you will find suggestions for further reading. Specialized encyclopedias, along with specialized dictionaries, will help you to define terms and give additional terms which may be useful in your search. The following online encyclopedias and dictionaries are among the most important ones for researching Middle East topics

Encyclopedia of Islam
Encyclopedia of the Qur'an
Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures

Pointers for searching the above:

• "Islam" is used in its widest cultural context
• You can search these as a group or individually
• Use Mozilla Firefox in order to get proper display of diacritics (accent marks)
• You can do a basic keyword search or advanced searches with truncations (use *)
• Cross-references so you can find info without using the "proper" term

Oxford Dictionary of Islam

• For quick look-ups of terms, people, places, etc.
• Use keywords, * for truncation

Encyclopaedia Iranica REF DS253.E53 1982

• Articles on people, places, terms, and topics dealing with Iranian culture
• A free online version of Encyclopaedia Iranica- need to download special fonts before you can search. This version offers access to the articles, but not searching

The Historical Dictionaries series is helpful for quick look-ups of terms, people, movements, events, etc. of particular countries. Most Middle Eastern countries are represented as well as certain religious-ethnic groups (Sufism, Baha'i, Druzes, Berbers, Kurds, etc.), political-religious movements (Islamic fundamentalist movements, Arab and Islamic organizations, Zionism), conflicts (Afghan wars, Arab-Israeli conflict, Persian Gulf War, etc.). All are in the REFerence collection; check Pegasus for exact call numbers.

Some online resources for Middle Eastern government, NGO, and regional bodies which may include constitutions, laws, reports, etc. & current media sources from the Middle East

• Internet Resources for Foreign Governments
• Foreign Government Resources on the Web from the Documents Center at the University of Michigan Library. Includes sections on Constitutions, Laws and Treaties and Foreign Governments: Middle East and North Africa
• Foreign Governments from Northwestern University Library. Includes regional organizations
• Foreign & International Law Sites on the Internet: Middle East from Cornell University Law School
• al-Misbah/MENALIB Index, with links, to Middle East related internet resources

FOR FURTHER RESOURCES you can check out