Religious Studies

Contact

Keith Weimer, Research Librarian for History and Religious Studies 
kweimer@virginia.edu
Kerchof Hall
Office hours by appointment

Philip McEldowney, Librarian for Middle East and South Asia Studies
pm9k@virginia.edu
Kerchof Hall
Office hours by appointment

Basic library information

• Library home page
  • Hours
  • Maps/Branches
  • Ask a Librarian: in person, phone, email, chat, SMS

• Grad services page: list of specialized services for grad students
• Religious Studies subject guide: discipline-specific databases and online resources; course guides
• Service directory: comprehensive list of library services

Main Library (Alderman) Renovation (2019-2023): The Main Library will be closed for Renovation. Books have been moved to Clemons Library or Ivy Stacks. See all about it at Renovation. Fall 2023: Main Library is projected to re-open!

Virgo account (login through NetBadge)

• See Account Information
• View Checked-out Items
• Renew Items

Graduate Student Research Services (many behind NetBadge)

• Request a purchase: Ask the Library to purchase books, videos, etc. to add to the Library collection. Instructors may request the purchase of items for student course reserves. Talk to me more about adding to the collection according to your research interests.
• Request an Interlibrary Loan (ILL): Students and faculty who need materials not owned by the UVA Library can have them borrowed from another library.
• Schedule a research consultation with a library liaison: Subject liaisons are the Library’s advisers to the academic departments. They are available to answer questions about library resources and assist with in-depth research.
• Reserve spaces in the library for group study or small events
• Printing, copying and scanning services

Library Catalog and Stacks

Virgo is the library’s catalog.

• Searching for e.g. American Poetry 21st Century and sorting the search results by Date Received will show you the most recently acquired titles that match your search terms.
• Items can be found in the Clemons Stacks, in another library, or off-site (Ivy Stacks)
• The current periodicals room (3rd floor West) has browseable recent issues of literary magazines and journals. 
• Request LEO delivery for items in off-site storage. Process is described here.

Research portal page

The research portal page is the gateway to most of the library’s online resources.  It includes links to

• Subject guides
• Popular databases
• A-Z list of library databases

Off-Grounds Access

Reload @UVA button: Add the button to your browser's bookmark toolbar (see instructions below).  Whenever you come across a journal or article you think you should be able to access, click the button to reload the page through the UVA Library proxy.

• Firefox: Drag the button to the bookmarks toolbar or right click and select the "Bookmark This Link" option.
• Chrome or Safari: Drag the button to the bookmarks toolbar. If the bookmarks toolbar isn't visible, press Ctrl + Shift + B (in Chrome).

*Note: Reloading the page through the proxy still won't give you access if it's a resource we don't subscribe to. To verify access, look up the journal or database in the appropriate list. 

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is good for tracking down PDFs of journal articles, figuring out metrics/impact. To set up preferences to recognize UVA as your "home institution": 

• Settings--> Library Links --> University of Virginia Libraries --> "Find this @UVA"
• Save preferences. (Note: Cookies must be enabled for this to work.) 

​Some first steps

• Make sure you can log in to your library account
• Set up your ILL/LEO Account for delivery of books from Clemons/Ivy/ILL/scans/off-site storage retrieval
• Set up your Aeon Account to register as a Special Collections online researcher
• Look at the Calendar of Events — sign up for workshops or tours that might be helpful this semester