Reformation & Medieval History Research

Is your progress report for Reformation or Medieval History due soon? Find more sources to include in your paper with the help of Concordia Library.

1. Get background information to understand your topic by looking it up in an encyclopedia about that time period.

For example, you can find The Encyclopedia of the Reformation In the library's REFERENCE collection, on the ground floor of the library, the call number is BR 302.8 O93 1996. Or Medieval England an Encyclopedia, call number DA 129 M43 1998.

2. Once you know a bit more about your topic, choose some keywords to search such as the names of important people, or groups of people, involved. To find books, search the library catalogue using these general terms about your topic.

For example, if your topic is how the Reformation led to the development of the Hutterites and other religious groups you use the keywords: Hutterites, Anabaptists, Reformation, John Hutter. Try different combinations of these keywords. Make sure to try both the plural and singular forms of your keywords.

3. To find Articles Open the library's E-Resources page for History and choose an article database to search. I suggest Historical Abstracts and Academic Search Complete. (If you are connecting from off-campus your User ID is the barcode from your ID card and your PIN is the last 4 digits of your student ID number) Use some of the same keywords you used to search the library catalogue. Articles tend to be on very specific topics, so read the article summary (sometimes called an abstract) to make sure that the article is relevant to your project.

For example, searching the keyword "Hutterites" finds many articles but some of them are about Hutterites in North America and not about Hutterites in Europe during the Reformation.

To read the full article, click on the Full Text link. If there is no full text link, click on the "Where can I find this" link to see if Concordia has a copy of the article in another database. If you have any difficulties, contact the Info Desk for assistance. We'd love to help you find some good sources for your essay.