Tips for use of the EBSCO databases : OTA, NTA and CPLI

OTA = Old Testament Abstracts
NTA = New Testament Abstracts
CPLI = Catholic Periodical and Literature Index

Scripture searching / Scripture index / Limiting your search / Save, print or email your results

Three of our most valuable indexing instruments are provided to us by the same vendor : EBSCO. For this reason, they look very similar and function in a similar way. When you become familiar with the EBSCO interface, you will be able to use all three of these databases. Each of them will give you access to articles in scholarly journals or in multi-author edited books.

For information about the scope and coverage of these databases, please see the description of each one on our Online Databases page.

Scripture searching

All three of these databases offer extensive resources for exegesis and biblical studies. You will probably want to search for specific passages of Scripture. First, make sure you are using the Advanced Search mode.

Let's try an example in Old Testament Abstracts. Enter the full name of the book of the Bible, then chapter and verse. Then, from the drop-down menu, choose SC Scripture Citation.

Bear in mind that you will be searching only for articles written on this exact passage. If there is an article using Genesis 18:1-12 as a unit, you will not retrieve it with this search, even though that passage is included in the longer one. If you retrieve very few records, try broadening your search -- for example, enter just Genesis 18.

When there is more than one book of the Bible with the same name, you need to add a comma, then specify 1st, 2nd and so on :

Samuel, 2nd
Corinthians, 1st 13
Timothy, 1st 5:23

For Canticles or the Song of Songs, use Song of Solomon. For the Apocalypse of John, use Revelation.

IMPORTANT NOTE : If you do a Scripture Citation search and get a message reading "No results were found," check to see if the Linked Full Text box is checked under Limit your results:

Click on the box to unmark it, and try your search again. There will be many more articles in the index that exist in paper form but not as electronic full-text files, so you are likely to get many more citations if you do not limit your search to Linked Full Text.