Home - Classics and Italian - Research Guides at Mount Holyoke College

Overview

This guide surveys some of the main resources you will use in your research. All of the sources below will lead you to citations, and some will even take you to the full text. Record the citations as you go, even the ones that don't seem useful at the time.

Remember, no research topic survives contact with the library. Some floundering is a natural part of this process, but don't be afraid to ask a librarian or your professor if you are feeling truly lost. As you begin to get a handle on the literature around your chosen subject, your focus will shift and the questions you can ask will deepen.

Feedback

Welcome to the Classics and Italian Research Guide

This guide shows the best places to start your research in Classics and Italian. Access tools to find background information, books, journal articles, websites and special resources-images, online collections, and citing and copyright tools.

Use the tabs at the top of the page to start your research

Every subject area has a LITS liaison who specializes in the technology tools and library materials used in that discipline. Don't hesitate to contact any liaison to request a reference consultation or a bibliographic instruction session at the library for your class, ask a research question, or to suggest purchasing books or other materials to add to our collection.

Alice Whiteside is the LITS liaison for Classics and Italian
and is here to help with Classics and Italian research

Evaluating Sources

Whenever you're doing research, think critically about how much you can trust the sources you find. It helps to keep the following questions in mind:

Who is the publisher? Is it an academic press, a university, a museum, a company or an individual?

Who is the author? What are their credentials? Have they written anything else in this field? (check the library catalog!) How have others in the field received their work?

What is their evidence and organization? Do they cite reliable sources to provide evidence? Do they make coherent arguments? Do they have biases or conflicts of interest?

When was this published? Is it recent or completely out of date?

For more on evaluating sources, see the Williams College Libraries guide.