PTS Databases
The Barbour Library's databases will be your primary source for electronic scholarly articles, and through indexing can also assist you in finding relevant print materials.
Accessing the Databases -
- From the library homepage, choose the Articles and Databases link under RESEARCH.
- You will find all of the library databases listed in alphabetical order.
- If you are off campus, see Remote Access: Library Account & Databases for further assistance.
What's a Library Database?
Searching Databases
EBSCO Databases
(Academic Search Premier, ATLA Historical Monographs, ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials Plus, ERIC, GreenFILE, LISTA, New Testament Abstracts, Old Testament Abstracts)
All of the databases listed above run on the EBSCO platform. That means their search screens all look the same, and you can cross-search multiple databases simultaneously through the EBSCO Databases (all) link on the library's Articles and Databases page. The Select a Field drop-downs allow you to search by All Text (keywords found anywhere in the text), Author, Title, Subject Terms, and more. For more details on searching an EBSCO database, see the Using the ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials Plus LibGuide.
Other Databases
The library also subscribes to several databases that are not on the EBSCO platform. Unlike the EBSCO databases, these databases will not all have the same user interface. You can see from the examples below that their appearance and navigation can be quite different from EBSCO databases, and from each other. However, many have similar features, albeit in different locations. If you are having trouble navigating any of the databases, please stop in to the library for help.
JSTOR
Oxford Biblical Studies Online
Limiting to Scholarly Articles
In some of our databases you can limit the items in your result list to scholarly (also known as peer-reviewed or refereeed) articles only. The different limiters are found on the left-hand side of your result list under Refine Results.
One option is to check the Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals box under the Limit To heading. As you can see, there are some other limiters available that may also be useful in refining your search.
You can also limit your results to scholarly materials by choosing Academic Journals under Source Types.
Theological Databases
As a seminary library, the focus of our collection is theological. The following databases are geared toward theology or related research.
- Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials PLUS This link opens in a new windowThe premier theological database with index and full-text of journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion.
- Biblical Archaeology Society Online Archives This link opens in a new windowContains more than 35 years of Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR). The Archive also provides access to Bible Review, Archaeology Odyssey, and four ebooks written by prominent archaeology scholars.
- Digital Karl Barth Library This link opens in a new windowFeatures Barth's magnum opus (Die kirchliche Dogmatik), the first 36 volumes of Barth's Gesamtausgabe, which includes hundreds of letters, sermons, lectures, conversations, and academic writings, as well as seven additional German works that have not yet been published.
- Index Theologicus (IxTheo) This link opens in a new windowContains over 400,000 citations to articles published in (largely German) theology and religious studies journals, festschrift, and in-congress publications.
- New Testament Abstracts This link opens in a new windowContains more than 46,000 article abstracts, over 1,600 review abstracts, 17,000 book abstracts, and 61 software abstracts on all topics and disciplines of the New Testament.
- Old Testament Abstracts This link opens in a new windowContinas indexing and abstracts for journal articles, monographs, multi-author works, and software related to Old Testament studies.
- Religious and Theological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowContains indexes and summaries of articles published in scholarly religion and theology journals.
- Twentieth Century Religious Thought, Volume I: Christianity This link opens in a new windowTwentieth Century Religious Thought is a multivolume, cross-searchable online collection that brings together the seminal works and archival materials related to key worldwide religious thinkers, from the early 1900s until the turn of the 21st century. Volume I on Christianity currently features more than 250 authors from Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America, including Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hans Urs von Balthasar, plus many more.
Multi-Disciplinary Databses
Multi-disciplinary databases can be applicable resources when researching the intersection of religion with topics such as philosophy, psychology, culture, ethics, history, and so forth. They may cover religion and theology, but are not as exclusively focused.
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowIndexing and abstracts for more than 8,500 journals, with full text for more than 4,600 of those titles.
- GreenFile This link opens in a new windowContains scholarly, government, and general-interest titles covering all aspects of environmental studies and related disciplines.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR is a digital library that contains full-text journal articles, conference proceedings, primary source materials, and ebooks from a variety of disciplines.
Reference Databases
Reference databases provide background information on innumerable subjects and can be helpful in preliminary research.
