Temple has just purchased electronic access to seven excellent encyclopedias, mainly on religious topics, through The Gale Virtual Reference Library, which is accessible from TUL homepage on the A-Z database list, the eBooks list, and in the Library Catalog. These specialized encyclopedias are great places to start research on unfamiliar topics, providing nice overviews, bibliographies, and linked cross-references. In addition to the great content, The Gale Virtual Reference Library interface is much more user-friendly than those of other e-book vendors, and each encyclopedia can be searched or browsed. Check out the links below! 1) Contemporary American Religion 2 volumes, 1999

• Examples: Angels; Astral Planes; Book of Common Prayer; Born Again Christians; Confucianism, and hundreds more

2) Encyclopedia of Buddhism 2 volumes, 2004

• Examples:Ascetic Practices; Buddhahood and Buddha Bodies; Consciousness, Theories of; Confucianism and Buddhism, and hundreds more

3) Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World 2 volumes, 2004

• Examples:Abu Bakr (573-674); Caliphate; East Asian Culture and Islam; Hadith, and hundreds more

4) Encyclopedia of Religion 2nd ed., 15 VOLUMES, 2005

• Examples: Aegean Religions; Akhenaton; Alphabets; Christian Ethics; Canaanite Religion, The Literature; Conservative Judaism, and thousands more

5) Encyclopedia of Science and Religion 2 volumes, 2003

• Examples: Anthropic Principle; Avicenna; Causation; Creationism; Descartes, Rene, and hundreds more

6) New Catholic Encyclopedia 2nd ed., 15 VOLUMES, 2003

• Examples: Abelard, Peter; Alexandria; Boston College; Celtic Religion; Celibacy, Clerical, History of, and thousands more

7) New Dictionary of the History of Ideas 6 volumes, 2005

• Examples: Anarchism ;Aristotelianism; Black Consciousness; Evolution; Free Will, Determinism, and Predestination, and hundreds –Fred Rowland