Recommended for "Reference"
- Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD) This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive dictionary of the Akkadian language and its dialects, browasble in individual volumes by letter.
The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD)Call Number: Reference PJ3525 +C5The standard reference work in the study of the Akkadian language, in 21 volumes.
- Oxford History of the Ancient Near East5-volume collection of ebooks covering the history of Europe and Western Asia, from 10,000 BC through the 300s BC.
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art HistoryPairs essays and works of art with chronologies, telling the story of art and global culture through the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection.
- Grove Art Online This link opens in a new window
A collection of important reference works in the visual arts, including The Concise Dictionary of Oxford Art Terms, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Oxford Companion to Western Art.
A History of the Ancient near East, Ca. 3000-323 BC by Call Number: EBOOKISBN: 9781118718179Publication Date: 2015
Secondary Research
ARTICLE OR BOOK?
Books and ebooks can provide basic facts, context and vocabulary to help you conduct more detailed research. They often provide a "big-picture" overview of a particular topic, which can help you identify the more specific topics that you want to pursue and understand the context surrounding those topics. You may also encounter books that are edited collections. These usually contain essays by a number of scholars on different topics surrounding a central theme, and are a great way to quickly gain multiple, reliable perspectives.
Articles tend to be good sources for detailed information on a very specific topic, or thoughtful analysis of issues or a particular text or artifact. Because they are usually published more quickly than books, they may have more current information than books on the same topic (check the publication date!)
Books tend to be more helpful towards the beginning of a research project or of a new phase of your research. Articles tend to be more helpful once you've engaged with a book or two, or at least have a solid grounding in the basics of the topic.
SEARCHING FOR BOOKS:
CrossSearch is the Libraries' multi-search "discovery" tool. CrossSearch searches a cross-section of journal articles, newspapers, CDs, images, and many other types of resources available through the libraries. It is also our main library catalog -- the tool you use to find books, journals, films, and other items physically located in the library, as well electronic versions of those items. 
To leave out individual articles and focus on things like books and films, you can use the Catalog Only limit in CrossSearch.
Watch our video tutorial 📺 to learn more about CrossSearch. If you're not a CrossSearch fan, you can also use the Library Catalog to find books.
Try searching for books using a very basic keyword search. Books tend to be on broad topics, so the terms you search with should be broad, too! Once you've found a few books that look interesting to you, you can use clues from the books to help you find other books. For example....
- Call Numbers. Books on similar subjects are in similar areas of the library. For example, if you search for books about Gilgamesh, you would see pretty quickly that many books have call numbers starting with PJ3771 (or nearby). This means you can easily go to that section of the library and look through the books in person!
- Vocabulary. Check the records in the library catalog for vocabulary in the tables of contents, titles, descriptions or other information that you might use for future searches.
- Subjects. Every book in our catalog is marked with at least 1 "tag" that tells you what the book is mostly about, and links together other books on that same topic. You can click on the tags to find a list of all other books using that tag.
FINDING YOUR WAY IN THE LIBRARY:
At Holy Cross, we organize our books using a system called Library of Congress Classification or LCC. LCC is based on the subject of the books. Each letter represents a specific subject. Each subject is broken down into more specific letter sections, each of which is further broken down into number ranges for specific topics. Most call numbers have additional numbers and letters on the end of them, which are used to give each book a unique spot on the library shelves.
Generally:
- Reference Books are in the Main Reading Room. These books must stay in the library.
- Books whose numbers begin with letters A through G are on the Mezzanine level (1 floor down from the Main Reading Room).
- Books whose numbers begin with N or TR are in the Visual Arts Wing on the main level.
- Books whose numbers begin with letters H through Z are mostly on the Ground (bottom) level.
- Books whose numbers begin with M are in the Music Library in Brooks Hall.
- Books whose numbers begin with Q, R, S or T are in the Science Library in Swords Hall.
You can also watch our video tutorial 
to learn more about how call numbers work. Or, check out the Library of Congress Classification Outline for a detailed breakdown of our call number system.
FINDING ARTICLES IN RESEARCH DATABASES
Research Databases are tools designed to help you search the scholarly (and other) articles and resources available to you through the Holy Cross Libraries. Article databases are like very long bibliographies of articles that might interest you -- some that are available physically at Holy Cross, some available online, and some that we have to borrow from other libraries.
We have access to over 300 databases!
Here are the ones you might find most helpful for this assignment.
- JSTOR Arts & Sciences This link opens in a new window
Journal articles in almost every subject area, including some historical articles back to the 17th century.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
