Welcome
Welcome to the research portal for Lay Piety: Religion in Everyday Medieval Life (Fall 2024). The dashboard provides quick links to resources you need for your research and assignments. Whether you are online or on-Grounds, UVA Library services and support are available to all students.
Your Librarian
Your Librarian is Rebecca Coleman
Rebecca can help with: refining your topic, gathering research, finding images and site documentation, locating maps and data, organizing your research, citations, and more! She can meet with you in-person or online via Zoom.
Request content any time
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Ask a Librarian
Download library apps and software
- Libkey Nomad Browser ExtensionUpon finding an article on any website, Libkey Nomad identifies if the Library has access (and directs you to the full PDF of the article), or if not, directs you to Interlibrary Loan to allow you to get quick access to any article, anywhere.
- ZoteroAnother free alternative to Refworks - collect, organize, cite and share your research sources. Downloads to your web browser on your personal computer. Is especially good for saving and linking to digital objects and web pages.
Sign Up for Library events
Sign up for Library orientations, workshops, and events with our online calendar. UVA Library programming is offered in-person and online.
Search for academic articles
Academic databases contain peer-reviewed articles, images, reports, news, and more. These are the most used databases for architectural history research.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowFind articles from most online scholarly journals plus some books and Web sites. Use Advanced Search if you get too many results; use Preferences to turn on links to Find@UVa and RefWorks.
- Art & Architecture Source This link opens in a new windowArt & Architecture Source is a full-text art research database covering fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as architecture and architectural design. With strong international coverage, it offers hundreds of full-text art journals, magazines and books, plus detailed indexing and abstracts and thousands of images.
- IMB: International Medieval Bibliography This link opens in a new windowThe IMB shares an interface with the Bibliographie de civilisation médiévale and the International Bibliography of Humanism and the Renaissance.
Lists articles from books and journals on any topic relating to the European Middle Ages (ca. 400-1500).
Primary Sources Online
- Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new windowThis resource contains full color images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise these family letter collections along with full text searchable transcripts from the printed editions, where they are available. The original images and the transcriptions can be viewed side by side.
- Early Modern England: Society, Culture and Everyday Life, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new windowThis project offers rare and invaluable sources for examining the lived experience of people who witnessed this pivotal era of English history. From 'ordinary' people through to more prominent individuals and families, these documents show how everyday working, family, religious and administrative life was experienced across England.
- Internet Medieval SourcebookDigitized source materials from all periods of European medieval history. Prepared by Fordham University.
Reference Resources
Reference resources include dictionaries, encyclopedias and other sources that offer access to factual information. Many of these resources are deeply focused on particular subjects, which can help you to find the appropriate definition for a particular discipline or time period.
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowComprehensive encyclopedia of the visual arts of Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific with links to tens of thousands of images.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowA large collection of basic information on many subjects drawn from reference books published by Oxford University Press.
- Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Handbooks Online brings together leading scholars to discuss research and the latest thinking on a range of major topics. Each Handbook offers thorough introductions to topics and a critical survey of the current state of scholarship in a particular field of study, creating an original conception of the field and setting the agenda for new research. The articles review the key issues and major debates, and provide an original argument for how those debates might evolve. UVa has access to all subjects.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new windowDeveloped cooperatively with scholars and librarians worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides to a variety of subjects. UVa subscribes to all subjects.
Image Sources
- ARTStor This link opens in a new windowArtstor is now on JSTOR.
Images of world art from all periods, including paintings, drawings, prints, historic photographs, architecture and design.
- Index of Medieval Art This link opens in a new windowA bibliographic and iconographic database listing over 100,000 works of art produced from early apostolic times up to A.D. 1400. Entries include citations to articles and books about the object.
- FlickrUser-submitted images. Includes collections from numerous cultural institutions around the world.
Tip: Search geotagged images at https://www.flickr.com/map
Help me with citations
Different disciplines use different styles of citation. Please check to determine which style is right for your course and assignment. Remember that citations are important for crediting ideas, designs, data sources, image creators, and more.
- Use Zotero to organize your sources and generate bibliographiesGuide to downloading and using Zotero, a free application that collects, manages, and cites research sources.
Google Tips & Tricks
These tips can help you locate better information on the web, faster. But remember- a lot of information is not freely available on the web, no matter how well you search!
- Put quotation marks around words that you want to stick together as a phrase
- Add "site:.gov" to the end of your search to ONLY search websites on government domains
- Add "site:website.com" to search only the content of a specific site (for example: charlottesville.org!)
- Add "filetype:pdf" to ONLY search for information you think is likely to be in PDF format (reports, documents, etc.)
- Use the minus sign or dash to eliminate results that are off target (Example: food system -digestive)
- Remember that Google is only a computer, and doesn't understand the concepts in your search. So, try your search using different keywords and phrases that mean the same thing.