Introduction
This subject guide highlights some key discipline resources to get you started with study and research.
- Refer to the New Students Library Guide for everything you need to know about Library services and resources.
- Build your researching, reading and writing skills with the Research Essentials Library Guide.
- Streamline your access to online resources with the Library's quick access tools.
Language resources
Below are some dictionaries and grammar works to get you started. For further resources, also check the following subject headings in the Library catalogue:
Dictionaries:
Pocket Oxford Italian dictionary: English-Italian by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9780191739552Publication Date: 2010
Pocket Oxford Italian dictionary: Italian-English by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9780191739569Publication Date: 2010
Dizionario Combinatorio Italiano by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9789027272317Publication Date: 2013-06-20
Dizionario dei sinonimi e contari (Thesaurus)
Easy to use synonym search for Italian words provided by Corriere della sera.
Reverso Dictionary
Collins Italian » English online dictionary with thousands of words and phrases.
Grammar and workbooks:
Modern Italian grammar : a practical guide by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9780203085035Publication Date: 2013-09-13This new edition of the Modern Italian Grammar is an innovative reference guide to Italian, combining traditional and function-based grammar in a single volume. With a strong emphasis on contemporary usage, all grammar points and functions are richly illustrated with examples. Implementing feedback from users of the first edition, this text includes clearer explanations, as well as a greater emphasis on areas of particular difficulty for learners of Italian. Divided into two sections, the book covers: traditional grammatical categories such as word order, nouns, verbs and adjectives language functions and notions such as giving and seeking information, describing processes and results, and expressing likes, dislikes and preferences. This is the ideal reference grammar for learners of Italian at all levels, from beginner to advanced. No prior knowledge of grammatical terminology is needed and a glossary of grammatical terms is provided.
Soluzioni: a practical grammar of contemporary italian by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9781315738710Publication Date: 2015-02-11Soluzioni: A Practical Grammar of Contemporary Italian comprises an engaging reference grammar with related exercises in one volume.
Collins Italian dictionary & grammar by Call Number: UniM Bail 453.21 COLLISBN: 9780007484379Publication Date: 2014
Italian verbs conjugator
Useful site for working with Italian verbs.
Encyclopedias
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Italy by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9781315709970Publication Date: 2015-05-15The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Italy provides a comprehensive account of Italy and Italian politics in the 21st Century. Featuring contributions from many leading scholars in the field, this Handbook is comprised of 28 chapters which are organized to deliver unparalleled analysis of Italian society, politics and culture. A wide range of topics are covered, including: Politics and economy, and their impact on Italian society Parties and new politics Regionalism and migrations Public memories Continuities and transformations in contemporary Italian society. This is an essential reference work for scholars and students of Italian and Western European society, politics, and history.
A linguistic history of Italy : Storia linguistica d'Italia by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9781760463250Publication Date: 2019
Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9780203943540Publication Date: 2006-12-26The Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies is a two-volume reference book containing some 600 entries on all aspects of Italian literary culture. It includes analytical essays on authors and works, from the most important figures of Italian literature to little known authors and works that are influential to the field. The Encyclopedia is distinguished by substantial articles on critics, themes, genres, schools, historical surveys, and other topics related to the overall subject of Italian literary studies. The Encyclopedia also includes writers and subjects of contemporary interest, such as those relating to journalism, film, media, children's literature, food and vernacular literatures. Entries consist of an essay on the topic and a bibliographic portion listing works for further reading, and, in the case of entries on individuals, a brief biographical paragraph and list of works by the person. It will be useful to people without specialized knowledge of Italian literature as well as to scholars.
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture by Call Number: electronic resourceISBN: 9780203440254Publication Date: 2002-09-11This rigorously compiled A-Z volume offers rich, readable coverage of the diverse forms of post-1945 Italian culture. With over 900 entries by international contributors, this volume is genuinely interdisciplinary in character, treating traditional political, economic, and legal concerns, with a particular emphasis on neglected areas of popular culture. Entries range from short definitions, histories or biographies to longer overviews covering themes, movements, institutions and personalities, from advertising to fascism, and Pirelli to Zeffirelli. The Encyclopedia aims to inform and inspire both teachers and students in the following fields: *Italian language and literature *Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences *European Studies *Media and Cultural Studies *Business and Management *Art and Design It is extensively cross-referenced, has a thematic contents list and suggestions for further reading.
Books
Looking for a book but we don't have it or it's not on our shelves?
Inter-library Loans
University of Melbourne staff and students can request resources through the Library’s inter-library loans service. For more information visit the ILL web page, or you can access the request forms.
A CAVAL card allows you to borrow from other Unis and TAFEs. Visit the CAVAL website to find out how to sign up for a CAVAL card.
You can then use the Trove website to see which library has the book you want.
The Library Catalogue can help you find books
To find books on a particular subject, use a keyword search on the Library Catalogue. For example:
cultural anthropology
Medieval history
creative writing
climate change
Keyword searching often retrieves a large number of results. These four techniques can help you focus your search:
AND
Narrows your search
E.g. medieval AND history
OR
Expands your search
E.g. climate OR weather
" "
Searches for an exact phrase
E.g. "social theory"
*
searches for variant endings
E.g. innovat* = innovation, innovations, innovators
The video below (3:47 mins) explains how you can use these advanced search techniques to quickly find relevant books and ebooks in the catalogue:
You can also find books on similar topics through the subject headings in item records. Click on these headings to view related subjects around your area and the all the books that the library has related to that subject. The image below shows where you can find subject headings.
Databases and journals
Use databases to search across many academic resources (including peer-reviewed journals) at the same time.
Refer to the A-Z Ejournals and Databases page for a comprehensive list of available resources.
Core Arts and Humanities databases (try these first):
The selection of multidisciplinary databases below will retrieve results from different subject areas.
- Discovery (EBSCO)Use Discovery to look for books, ebooks, journal articles and more. It's a great place to start your search but does not give you everything the Library has. We highly recommend searching in at least one other database on this list as well as Discovery.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is one of the most popular ways to find academic sources for study and research. Did you know you can use it to search for journal articles that the University of Melbourne has access to? You can do this through the link above or set up your Google Scholar preferences to include Library content.
- JSTORJSTOR is one of the largest databases the Library has access to. It is a multidisciplinary database so it looks in thousands of journals in over a hundred subjects - many of them related to arts and humanities. Highly recommended as your first or second place to search.
- Scopus (Elsevier)Scopus is another large, multidisciplinary database. It looks through journals, books, and conference papers. It has some advanced tools that can help you discover new research quickly - the 'times cited' and 'related articles' links are great time-savers. While it doesn't always have full-text PDFs it is still an excellent place to look for your research.
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is a massive, multidisciplinary database which includes a large amount of humanities and social sciences material from as far back as 1900. Like Scopus it has some advanced features that allows you to quickly link to related research.
- ProQuest CentralCovering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
Italian Studies-specific databases:
For more focused results try searching in one of these subject-specific databases.
- L'Emeroteca DigitaleThe Digital Newspaper Library = L'Emeroteca Digitale publishes documents about Italian history and culture. The Documents are distributed in open source format.
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts : LLBA (Proquest)This database abstracts and indexes the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences. The database covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Documents indexed include journal articles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers.
- MLA International Bibliography (EBSCOhost)Produced by the Modern Language Association the International Bibliography is the definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present. It includes citations to content published in journals, books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites and dissertations. The database also includes the Directory of Periodicals and the Thesaurus.
- Literature Online (LION) (ProQuest)Literature Online is the leading online resource for the study and teaching of literature in English. The collection contains more than 350,000 works of poetry, drama and prose, over 350 full-text literature journals, and key bibliographies, biographies, reference works and student guides.
Literature Online also contains the following bibliographic database: ABELL, with records covering monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world. ABELL is compiled under the auspices of the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) - Project Muse Journal CollectionProject MUSE offers full-text current and archival articles from 500+ scholarly journals from major university presses covering literature and criticism, history, performing arts, cultural studies, education, philosophy, political science, gender studies, and more. Updated continually.
Websites
You can find relevant information and resources for your research on the websites of professional organisations and bodies, institutes, NGOs, government departments, etc.
This guide gives a few suggestions to get you started and to give you an idea what to look for. It is by no means comprehensive. If you are a coursework student, check your LMS to see if your lecturer has provided website recommendations.
Tip: if you want to limit your Google search results to organisational, governmental, or educational websites, use Google's advanced search option to limit the site or domains to .org, .gov, .edu.
Some website suggestions to get you started:
- CO.AS.IT. – Italian Assistance AssociationIncludes the Italian Historical Society and Museo Italiano collections, services, events, exhibitions and contact details.
- Internet CulturaleItalian libraries' digital resources portal.
- Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo UnicoThe Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information (National on-line catalogue).
- Project GutenbergThe Italian page of Project Gutenberg, offers free access to Italian e-books.
- Rai (Radiotelevisione Italiana)Italian website by the large Italian corporation RAI, which has links to the latest news and TV programs (that can be viewed online) and much more, direct from Italy.
- MovieplayerAn online Italian magazine focused on cinema, TV series, home videos and television programmes.
News
Referencing and citing
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