Books: Get to Know Your Topic
Books and eBooks are a great choice when you're new to a subject, since they can provide topic overviews and background information. They don't need to be read cover-to-cover to be useful - just check the table of contents or the index to find sections that are relevant to your interests. In eBooks, you can do a search for your topic within the book.
For some short, Christianity-relevant reads, check out the Very Short Introductions database:
Search the Library Catalog
Sample Searches
| Christianity AND symbolism |
Use AND between two or more terms to find materials with allthe concepts. Searching for Global warming AND atmospherewill only include books that have both global warming and atmosphere in their contents.
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| religion OR worship |
Use OR between similar concepts. Searching for dystopia ORantiuopia will find books that refer to either term.
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| "school prayer" |
Use quotation marks ( " " ) around specific phrases such as "Global Warming" to find the words in that specific order. |
eBooks
Here are a few places you can find eBooks, just remember that you will have to login with your myNOVA username and password (the same ones you use to access Canvas, student email, etc.). More information on downloading eBooks.
- EBSCO eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
A collection of eBooks curated by NOVA librarians on a variety of different subjects. eBooks can be accessed in the browser or downloaded for offline use. (NVCC)
eBooks (Open Web)
Check out these websites for access to books in the public domain (copyright free). This includes many works of classic literature such as Pride and Prejudice and The Tale of Genji.
- Bartleby.comAccess fiction, non-fiction, verse poetry, and reference works.
- Google BooksAnother great source for books in the public domain.
- WikisourceContains e-texts from works of literature as well as historic and other important documents.