Religious Studies Bibliography

One particular feature of RelBib is the availability display: with that, you can quickly find out whether and where an article, periodical or book is available. Links to online texts can be accessed directly if the publishers’ licenses allow it.

RelBib constitutes a free and open access service to the worldwide scholarly community of Religious Studies. The editor of RelBib is the Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen (central library of the University of Tübingen). RelBib is being produced in close cooperation with IxTheo by the Fachinformationsdienst “Religionswissenschaft” (Specialized Information Service of Religious Studies).

We apologize in advance for any errors which might come up at this early stage of development. We wish you an enjoyable experience as you explore RelBib and we would be glad to get your feedback!

Simple Search

Enter a term in the search field and leave the search category on “All Fields”. The system will then search for this term in all possible search fields. The drop-down menu allows you to narrow the search down to one specific category: title, author, call number (DDC), subject or ISBN / ISSN.

You may specify your results by means of the filter settings in the right column of the search result list according to the following criteria:

• time: year of publication
• medium: open access, mediatype, format
• classification: call number (DDC), RelBib classification
• content: topic, genre, era, region
• form: language, author, publisher

Some of the filters allow multiple selection.

Advanced Search

You can start an “Advanced Search” if you click on the link underneath the search field. Compared to “Simple Search”, here it is possible to start a search in several fields at the same time and thus to render your search more precisely. The "Match" setting lets you specify how multiple search fields should be handled. For certain complex searches it might be more useful to operate with search groups.

In addition to that, in the advanced search mode you can narrow your search down a priori according to the following facets: RelBib classification; format; language. Moreover, it is possible beforehand to set a publication period as well as the number of results listed per page.

Patron-Driven-Acquisition (PDA)

We are now offering a Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA) system which enables us to respond to special demands for Religious Studies’ literature in Germany. When necessary, the required books are purchased by the University Library in Tübingen. At the RelBib website, users may directly trigger the purchase of monographs which are not available at their current location and cannot be obtained through an inter-library loan.

Availability checking

A special highlight for users of RelBib is the checking of availablity of a title found during a search.

The link “HBZ Gateway” gets you to the checking of the availability of books in connection with your university.

The display "Journals Online & Print" (JOP) offers the same service for articles and periodicals. The JOP icons show you at one glance whether a periodical is available in your own university.

Subito

Instead of the inter-library loan you can order a title to be delivered directly to you via SUBITO, a service liable to costs. The link on your search result display gets you to the website of this delivery service.

Standing order by RSS feed

You can book your search string which you would like to be repeated at certain intervals by RSS feed. Thus, you will get a notice whenever something new has been added to RelBib. Please click on "Search Tools: Get RSS Feed" below the list of your search results to establish this service.

Citation

Under the link “Citation“ you can see your chosen title in three different citation styles (APA, MLA and Chicago). Please note that we are still working on this: we plan to add more citation styles eventually.

Exporting your search results

You can export single search results as well as lists of search results into EndNote, BibTex and RIS.

Printing your search results

You can print the list of your search results directly from RelBib. For this you choose the titles you would like to have on the list, then click “Print” above the research results. If necessary, you can adjust the number of results per page.

Feedback

Finally, we would like to present a very important feature of RelBib to you: it is the "Feedback" button on the lower right corner. You can send a feedback email from each point of your search, which then includes the URL of the present page. It is possible to leave a comment describing the current problem. This will enable us to analyse it more easily.

Find Topic

The Browse by Subject mode is intended to find subjects and standardized subject groups that are similar to the terms entered. This is especially useful to obtain subject groups and titles that are topically close to your originating search. You can also switch to this mode from the other way around: Select a specific title which was catalogued with subject headings. Just click on the B button on the left of the subject heading string, and you will see other titles which were catalogued with that string.

Browse by Category

The Browse by Category mode offers a way to start with some high level categories and refine your search to certain aspects without the need to know specific search terms beforehand. Categories provided are call number (DDC classmarks), RelBib classification, topic (subject heading), author and publisher. You are lead through a tree structure and may filter the items you wish to browse by using other fields.

Browse Alphabetically

The Browse alphabetically mode offers a comprehensive alphabetically sorted list of the contents of the respective categories. This is advantageous for survey research. You can decide at which point in the alphabet you would like to step in and choose from the following aspects: by topic, by author, by title or by call number.

This function is also useful when you are not sure how to spell the name of a given author or term: in that case just enter the first few letters of a word.

You may then use the following functions:

Alerting function

The alerting function lets you know when new articles from certain journals and new volumes from certain series are available. You may decide in which cases you would like to get a corresponding message.

In order to receive alerts for a journal or a series, you first have to select the entry for the journal or series as a whole. You then click on the “Bell” symbol which you will find on the right side of the corresponding entry. You can manage the list of publications marked for an alert in your account under the heading “New Issue Alerting”.

Saving search requests

Your current search requests are temporarily stored in the search history. If you would like to have permanent access to certain search requests, you can save them permanently in your account. You will find them under “Saved Searches” and may use them again through a simple mouse click. This feature might be useful for complex requests or for subjects in which you have a continuing interest. In this way, you will find the latest literature on a given subject or area of knowledge. Likewise, you can send your search request to another person via e-mail.

Select the corresponding search tool underneath the list of search results.

Sending your search result list per e-mail

You can also send your search result list or single entries to another person per e-mail. Choose individual entries or tick “Select Page” above the list. Click the “E-Mail” button and enter the destination address.

Please notice: you can only send the entries of a single result page. The result set can be increased using the “Results per page” drop-down menu above the list.

Saving favorites

You can save interesting titles directly in your account. Click on the “Star” symbol in the result list or in the detailed view. They are then permanently accessible, and you do not have to waste any time searching for them again. You may keep your “favorites” in different lists which you define yourself. In this way, you can assign interesting titles to specific research projects or subjects. In your account, you can also export your favorites, send them per e-mail or print them.