Medieval Studies: Books
This guide is designed for students at the M.A. level and focuses on interdisciplinary online resources in Medieval Studies. This is only a starting point and electronic resources should be verified with their print ancestors in many cases.
Google Books Search
Finding printed works, rare and uncommon
- Center for European Research LibrariesThe CERL Portal provides access to distributed databases containing manuscripts materials, printed works, photographic material and other special materials. The focus lies on manuscripts materials, but the Heritage of the Printed Book Database (HPB) and the English Short-Title Catalogue can be included in the search as well. Databases that are included are either ‘harvested’, i.e. the records have been collected from its original database and stored in an integrated, local index, or are acce
- Incunabula Short Title CatalogueThe database records nearly every item printed from movable type before 1501, but not material printed entirely from woodblocks or engraved plates. 29,777 editions are listed as at January 8th 2008, including some 16th-century items previously assigned incorrectly to the 15th century.
- English Short Title Catalog (ESTC)The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) lists over 460,000 items published between 1473 and 1800; mainly, but not exclusively, in English; published mainly in the British Isles and North America; from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries.
- Early English Books Online This link opens in a new windowContains digital images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War. The collection is indexed at the British Library website. The index (in print) and images (on microfilm) are also available in Waldo Library.
Finding secondary books and dissertations
- WorldCat This link opens in a new windowComprehensive catalog of books and other materials in libraries around the world. Contains millions of records in hundreds of languages. Items located through WorldCat must be requested through Interlibrary Loan unless they are also listed in the WMU libraries catalog. (Library Search)
- Dissertations and Theses Global (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowIndexes virtually all doctoral dissertations and many masters theses produced in the U.S. since 1861. Dissertations from other countries date back to 1637. Abstracts available from 1980. Full text for dissertations being added continually. Most since 1997 are full text, though some authors choose to not make their work available. Print and microfilm copies are offered for a fee, but check out Interlibrary Loan before paying for a copy.