Helpful handouts and links
- Bookmark PasskeyBookmark link that reloads a page with your Cornell credentials, when available.
- Scan RequestsRequest a scan of an article or chapter of book. This can be of items Cornell owns, or items that we do not own!
Land Acknowledgement
Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' people, past and present, to these lands and waters.
This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' leadership.
Reference Librarian
Background Literature Resources
Why use background or tertiary resources?
- Learn important terms, notable scholars or works, and more information about a topic.
- Bibliographies, further reading, and works cited sections can lead you to secondary sources you can use in your research.
- It's a quick overview of a theme, work, author, or other topic, which can save you time!
Finding Secondary Resources - Databases
- Art & Architecture Source This database covers a broad range of subjects from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. It features full-text articles as well as detailed indexing and abstracts for an array of journals, books, podcasts and more. International in scope, Art Source includes periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch and is designed for use by a diverse audience, including art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers.
- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals The Avery periodical index offers a comprehensive listing of journal articles published worldwide on architecture and design, archaeology, city planning, interior design, and historic preservation. Avery indexes not only the international scholarly and popular periodical literature, but also the publications of professional associations, US state and regional periodicals, and the major serial publications on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Expanded coverage includes obituary citations. Coverage is from the 1930s (with selective coverage dating back to the 1860s) to the present.
- Music Index Online Bibliographic database covering more than 725 international music periodicals from over 40 countries in 23 languages. Topics include every aspect of the classical and popular world of music, and are thoroughly categorized and organized according to the framework of an internal Subject List, which includes both Subject and Geographic headings. Covers all styles and genres of music. Cites book reviews, obituaries, new periodicals, and news and articles about music, musicians, and the music industry. Selected coverage before 1973. Coverage: 1973 to present.
- Urban Studies Abstracts Urban Studies Abstracts includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to urban studies, including urban affairs, community development, urban history, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Records are selected from many of the top titles within the discipline, including Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Studies, and Canadian Journal of Urban Research.
- JSTOR JSTOR is a fully-searchable database containing the back issues of several hundred scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, music, ecology and botany, business, and other fields. It includes the following collections: Arts & sciences I, II and III, General science, Ecology and botany, Business, Language and literature.
- Humanities International Index Indexes articles and books across arts and humanities disciplines from a multitude of U.S. and international publications. HII also provides citations for original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations. Many links to full text.
- Project MUSE Searchable database that provides access to the full text of journals published by Johns Hopkins University Press and other university presses in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. Covers such fields as literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and others.
- Smithsonian Global Sound for lLbraries Produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, this database provides a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. Users may browse by country, genre, cultural group, language, instrument, artist, ensemble, album, label, or category, such as American Folk, American Indian, Jazz, Spoken word and sounds, and Children's or conduct an advanced search. Registered users can create course folders and customized play lists.
Library Catalog Searching - Subject Headings
- "Middle East": Subject Heading BrowseSee all the subject headings under the "Middle East" umbrella.
- "Sound": Subject heading browseSee all the subject headings under the "Sound" umbrella.
- "Cities and towns > Middle East"Searches the catalog for all materials that are catalogued with this subject heading.
- "Architecture > Middle East"Searches the catalog for all materials that are catalogued with this subject heading.
Other sources
Maps
- Library of Congress maps of the Middle EastOver a hundred historical maps from the Library of Congress collections.
- Al-Bab MapsIncludes maps of the region, country maps, street plans, and political maps.
- 19th-Century Maps of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central AsiaFrom UChicago's collections
- The Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) Middle East Mapsfrom The Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) Map Collection at UT Austin
- David Rumsey's Middle Eastern mapsfrom David Rumsey's collection (some maps from this collection are available at Cornell)