We are happy to announce that we can now offer access to two very valuable new databases : Oxford Biblical Studies Online and Oxford Islamic Studies Online.  We are beginning to build up our holdings in electronic reference, so that our users will have access to high-quality encyclopedias, dictionaries, histories, handbooks and so on, even when you are not inside the UPSem Library.

These two Oxford products have an odd characteristic you should know about.  At this time, it is necessary to use separate links for on-campus and off-campus access.  You will find both links on our Online Databases page.

If you are on the Richmond or Charlotte campus, click on the on-campus link, and you should connect with the database site immediately.  If you are a current student, faculty or staff member and you are using a computer outside our network, click on the off-campus link, and you will be asked to login.  Enter your barcode and PIN and you should be able to access the database.  We hope to be able to provide one link for each of these Oxford products in the near future.

Here are some descriptions of the two new reference databases :

Oxford Biblical Studies Online

Texts from selected Oxford Bibles can be viewed in side-by-side display with the user’s choice of commentary and annotations from the Study Bibles, the stand-alone Oxford Bible Commentary, and A-Z concordances for the NRSV and NAB translations. The Bible content is supplemented by collections of major apocryphal Old and New Testament texts in translation.

In addition to the Bible texts, Oxford Biblical Studies Online offers quick access to over 5,000 A-Z entries from the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Oxford Companion to the Bible, and a wealth of other Oxford references. Users can easily navigate to hundreds of topical essays within the Oxford Study Bibles themselves, in The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies, The Oxford History of the Biblical World, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Bible, Oxford Bible Atlas, and other works, and access hundreds of searchable images and maps from these major scholarly publications.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online

Encompassing over 5,000 A–Z reference entries, chapters from scholarly and introductory works, Qur’anic materials, primary sources, images, maps, and timelines, Oxford Islamic Studies Online offers a multi-layered reference experience designed to provide a first stop for anyone needing information and context on Islam. The current core content titles include the following :

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, The Oxford History of Islam, Makers of Contemporary Islam, two Oxford World’s Classics versions of the Qur’an: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem’s The Qur’an (a prose translation), and The Koran Interpreted  (a renowned verse translation by A.J. Arberry), Hanna Kassis’ Concordance of the Qur’an, and many other resources.