How to look for
information on
Eastern Christendom…
…and how to control it
by Ivan HERASYM
J.-L. Allie Library
Saint Paul University
Ottawa/Canada
Numbers to consider
Over 61,000,000 records in OCLC database
 Over 100,000 titles presented during 2005
Frankfurt Book Fair
 ATLA Religion Database includes more than
460,000 article citations from more than 1,500
journals
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More than 500 periodicals on Eastern churches
Structure of
Literature
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Primary sources: ad fontes!
Texts
 Periodicals/Journal articles
 Dissertations and theses
 Conference proceedings
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Primary sources: Periodicals
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Orientalia christiana periodica
Journal of Eastern Christian studies
Ostkirchliche Studien
Revue des études byzantines
Logos : a journal of Eastern Christian studies
Primary sources: Dissertations
ProQuest Digital Dissertations
 Canada:
www.collectionscanada.ca/thesescanada/
 Theologische Revue (overview of Germanlanguage dissertations)
 Ukraine: www.nbuv.gov.ua/db/dis.html
 Russia: diss.rsl.ru
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Dissertations: Digital Dissertations
Secondary sources: in medias res!
References materials
 Monographs
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Secondary sources: Reference materials
Encyclopedias
 Dictionaries
 Directories
 Maps and atlases
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Reference materials: Encyclopaedias
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Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia
Encyclopédie Maronite
Coptic encyclopedia
St. Thomas Christian encyclopaedia of Indias
Theologische Realenzyklopädie / TRE
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Religion in Past and Present / RPP (RGG)
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Reference materials: Dictionaries
Blackwell dictionary of Eastern Christianity
 Oxford reference on-line
 Petit dictionnaire de l'Orient chrétien
 Dictionary of Orthodox theology
 Thesaurus linguae graecae / TLG
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Dictionaries:
Oxford reference on-line
Tertiary sources: tres faciunt consilium
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Bibliographies and bibliographic utilities
Indexes and abstracts
Book reviews
Guides
Library Web sites
Book catalogues
Thesauri
Tertiary sources: Bibliographies
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Eastern Christianity : a bibliography selected
from the ATLA religion database
Eastern Christian ritual : a bibliography of
English language sources
Ostkirchliche Studien
Dzherela i bibliografiia istoriï ukraïns’koï
tserkvy
Hellēnikē theologikē vivliographia
A/I Services: ATLA database
Tertiary sources: Guides
A guide to the Eastern Code: a
commentary on the Code of canons of
the Eastern Churches
 Critical guide to Catholic reference books
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Tertiary sources: Book reviews
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Journal of Eastern Christian Studies
St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
Theologische Literaturzeitung / ThLZ
Irénikon
Orientalia Christiana Peridodica
Byzantion
Logos : a journal of Eastern Christian studies
Tertiary sources: Library Web catalogues
J.-L. Allie Library
 Ottawa University
 Library of Congress
 Harvard University
 Vernadsky National Library (Ukraine)
 Russian State / National Libraries
 National Library of Serbia
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Library Web catalogues: multiLIS
RefWorks:
our tool to control this information
RefWorks advantages
Electronic database form
 Powerful search capabilities
 Easy to use
 Available on-line
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RefWorks disadvantages
.NET technology
 Diacritics
 You can use it only as long as you are with
SPU or any other institution that have
access to RefWorks

Why to know it…
ipsa scientia potestas est
Knowledge itself is power