Bible Study Tools: Find Books

Finding Biblical Commentaries & Criticism in the Online Catalog

The quickest, most comprehensive way to find biblical commentaries and criticism is to use the Classic Catalog, not the default search in DUQSearch. This section will instruct you how to find biblical commentaries and criticism using the Classic Catalog. Most of Gumberg Library's biblical oommentaries and criticism are printed books. It is these that will be found in the Classic Catalog. Any ebook commentaries and criticism are to be found using DUQSearch. Instructions on finding these things in DUQSearch are at the bottom of this page.

Step 1: Finding the Correct Library of Congress Subject Heading for a Biblical Book

To search for biblical commentaries and criticism in the Classic Catalog, you need to first find the correct Library of Congress subject heading for the biblical book you are interested in. On the left of the screen is a box in which you can find the correct heading. You can find four different sorts of headings:

• General
• Old Testament
• New Testament
• Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical

Once you find the correct heading, write it down, or copy it to paste it into the search box in the Classic Catalog. By the way, for this kind of search to work, you must use a correct Library of Congress subject heading.

Step 2: Getting to the Classic Catalog

To get to the Classic Catalog Search screen from this screen, just click the blue button directly below.

If you are starting from the Gumberg Library homepage, click on the "Research" button on the left side at the bottom of the page.

On the next screen, under "Research Tools," click on the "Classic Catalog" link.

Step 3: Doing a Search

You will be take to the Classic Catalog basic search screen. Click on "Advanced Search."

On the Advanced Search screen, enter the Library of Congress subject heading for your biblical book in the Search box. Then change the menu in front of the Search box to "Subject" and click the Search button. This will cause the Classic Catalog to run a Subject Search using your subject heading, bringing up everything in the catalog under that subject.

Your Search Result

In your search result you will have conveniently laid out before you everything on the biblical book you are interested in, subdivided to get you more quickly to the specific material you need. For those doing biblical exegesis, some of the more useful subdivisions are:

• Commentaries
• Criticism, Interpretation, Etc.

The number of items under a subdivision is found on the far right side of the line. Point to the subdivison you are interested and click on it and you will be taken to a list of those titles. In the example above, if we click on "Bible Matthew Commentaries," we would be taken to all commentaries on the entire Gospel of Matthew.

Find Commentaries & Critical Works in DUQSearch

You will find commentaries and critical works on biblical books more quickly and surely in the Classic Catalog. How to do this is shown above. But, since DUQSearch is the default search everyone will encounter, it is a good idea to know how to find these things using DUQSearch also. Another reason for knowing this is that ebooks can only be accessed through DUQSearch.

Step 1: Find the Correct Subject Heading (See Step 1 above)

Step 2: Go the the Advanced Search Screen

A very powerful and flexible way to search the DUQSearch Catalog is to use the Advanced Search. In order to do this you must first get to the DUQSearch Catalog. You may do so by clicking the Gumberg Library link on the right at the top of the screen, which will take you to the library's homepage. The Advanced Search link is under the DuqSearch search box.

Step 3: Enter your search

Enter the correct LCSH for the biblical book you are interested in the the first search box. Enter the word "commentaries" in the second box. Leave the menus to the right of the search boxes set for "Select a Field (optional)." Do not click Search yet.

DUQSearch will automatically find printed books, ebooks, and articles from selected databases when a search is run. Sometimes this gives an overwhelming result. If all you want to find are printed books and ebooks, no articles, type your search in the Advanced Search boxes, then scroll down. On the right, look for the limiter All Gumberg Specialized Collection Catalogs. Click the check box to the left of it. then click Search. This will limit your search to printed books and ebooks only.