Library Guides: HIST 302W: Muslims and Non-Muslims in the Modern Middle East: Finding Books and Other Materials

Tips for searching the CAT:

Finding Books in the Library

Browsing the shelves is one way to discover what the library has. Books on Middle Eastern History can be found starting with the Call Number DS35 located on the Pattee Stacks Level 1. Arrangement is largely by country.

Searching for Books

Catalog (Penn State University Libraries catalog) This link opens in a new window
Often most effective for books, also includes videos, maps, music and other formats in the Librarie's collections. Does NOT include articles from newspapers or journals.
This is the online catalog of materials owned by Penn State Libraries. All formats (books, journals, audiovisuals, maps, recordings, etc.) are included. Circulation status for individual items is also provided. Coverage: Presently contains about 7 million records. Updates: Continuous up-to-the-minute as new records are added.
LionSearch This link opens in a new window
an integrated search of books, e-books, research articles, newspaper articles, and other publications.
HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Millions of searchable books from academic libraries.
Sponsored by the libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the University of California, and other partners, HathiTrust is a repository of digitized materials in all disciplines. Its content--primarily scanned books and journals-- may be searched via authors, titles, subjects, and other data elements.

A few tips for searching library databases

There is no universal method of translating Arabic words and names into English. When searching an online database use all known variants of the term. For example: Gaddafi or Qaddafi or Gadafy or Gadaffi or Qadhdhafi, etc...
Many names and subject headings in the catalog use versions of words in the original language. For example the subject heading for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is "Muna·z·zamat al-Ta·hr¯ir al-Filas·t¯in¯iyah". To get the broadest results you will want to search both the common English term "Palestine Liberation Organization" and the standardized subject heading. Review the records to discover the preferred Library of Congress Subject heading.

Finding Books not at Penn State

If you know the item you want, and Penn State does not own it, use Interlibrary Loan!

Interlibrary Loan (ILLIAD)
Request items not owned by PSU Libraries. First time users will need to register.

You can request the items directly within these systems and they will automatically use our InterLibrary Loan service

WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window
Simultaneously search the catalogs of over 10,000 libraries worldwide, including major research libraries
OCLC WorldCat database is the OCLC online union catalog. It contains over 43 million records describing library holdings around the world.