St. Bernard's Church, Mt. Lebanon, PA
Photo by Jim Henderson, 27 March 2011
Image source: Wikimedia Commons; placed in the public domain by the photographer
The Gumberg Library owns many parish histories. Some will be in the stacks on the 2nd floor of the building. Some will be with the Oversized Books on the 1st floor. However, most will be in the University Archives and Special Collections department. Most of the parish histories are rare and hard to find and will need to be used in the Library.
Find all Parish Histories
To see catalog records for all books in the DUQSearch Catalog containing the words "parish and "history" click the link directly below:
Keyword search "parish AND history"
This search will bring up a large number of items, many of which are relevant to your interests, but many of which are not.
Find Specific Parish Histories
If you just want to see if the Gumberg Library owns a history of a specific parish, a more precise way of searching DUQSearch is to use the Advanced Search interface and to search using the name of the parish.
To get to the DUQSearch Advanced Search, click the link in the box on the right side of the screen.
Once on the DUQSearchAdvaned Search screen, type the name of the parish in the first search box. Then change the menu in front of the search box to "title." This will ensure you search for the name of the parish in the title of the book. In the second search box you should add the words "parish" and "history." You can just search them as keywords. If you retrieve a a result, click on the title of a work to see more information about that book
Search tip: If the parish history you are looking for is for a church named after a saint, do not type the possessive form of the saint's name (ie, St. Paul's). If the possessive form is not in the official name of the parish, you will not get a result. Instead, type the name, ending it with an asterisk (*) instead of an "'s". This will cause the search engine to look for all forms of the name and increase your likelihood of finding a result.
Where is it?
So you do a search and get a result. How do you know where to go for the parish history you are interested in? The location is given in the catalog record. See image below. In this image, "Not Available" does not mean that you cannot see the parish history, but that it cannot be taken out of the library. Following this, you will see the location of the item in the library. In some cases a call number will be given. If this is the case, the floor on which the call number is located will be given as well.
Need Help?
If you need help with this, Ask Gumberg. Or call the University Archives for assistance at 412.396.4870.
Click the link directly above to use the DUQSearch Advanced Catalog Search, which permits greater precision in your searching for books, DVDs, CDs, musical scores, etc. in the Gumberg Library
