Religion Resources: Home

Librarians are available for one-on-one research consultations. 

You can make an appointment to meet with a Librarian by phone or e-mail.

Click the link above to scroll through a list of research subjects and locate the librarian who specializes in your research area.

Library 160: Introduction to College Level Research

This is an open access textbook on how to do research using library resources. It is produced and published  in 2021 by scholars at Iowa State University. 

The Discovery link is available from the Library webpage. You may search all items, or only book, articles or journals. You can also click on the database link and search within specific databases.

The basic search is by keyword. Advanced searching is possible once a basic search has been done.

A keyword search will look for a word or phrase anywhere in the record of an item. It is a broad search with can produce relevant item. It also frequently produces a large number of irrelevant items. Within each item record are “official” subjects and facets. The subjects are Library of Congress subject headings. It is suggested that you begin with a keyword search, or several keyword searches using synonyms, and examine the Library of Congress subjects within the records. When you find Library of Congress subjects which appear to be more or less on your topic you may click them on or type the subject into the subject box on the search page. (It is easier to click on the subject, especially if it is a lengthy one since subjects must be typed in exactly as they appear in the subject box.) Subject searches tend to produce fewer items which are more relevant.

You may need to do several searches with keywords and subjects to find all the items you need.

Author searches are good if you know the author’s name. 

Title searches are good if you know the title. Leave off words like “The”, and “An” at the beginning of titles when using this sort of search.

University students may use the Law Library and take out circulating books there. You will need to show your Hofstra ID card to get into the Law Library.

The Medical Library is  highly restricted. You should phone or email the librarians at the Medical Library to see if you can gain access before visiting it.