Help for Bibliography Pages

Bibliography Lists

The bibliography lists are available sorted by Author (author + title), and by Subject (subject + author + title). Both lists show the bibliographical information in the same way. The Author list includes all items in the bibliography; the Subject list includes only items that have been assigned to a subject heading. The same item can appear under more than one subject heading. The author list can also be shown with all of the data found in the bibliography detail popup window; click the "Annotated" tab to see that (very long) list.

The author and title appear first. This is followed by the citation, giving the publisher, journal name and volume, series name, publication date, and any other relevant data.

The lists are very large and may take a while to load. To make it easy to jump to various parts of the list, there is a green alphabet bar at the left; clicking a letter will jump to the section of the page with items starting with that letter. You can also use your browser's "find in page" facility to search for text with the lists.

Bibliography Details

The bibliography detail page displays additional information about an item from the bibliography. It opens in a new window when you click a bibliography link (pop-up blockers should let this window appear, but if it doesn't, check your software documentation for the way to temporarily disable it). You can leave this window open and position and size it any way you want; it will be re-used the next time you click a bibliography link.

The page has a set of standard fields, and uses various abbreviations and symbols. The title and author or authors appear first. This is followed by the citation, giving the publisher, journal name and volume, series name, publication date, and any other relevant data. The next section is notes: an abstract or description of the item, special features, page count, etc. The amount of information available in the notes varies considerablly. Following the notes is the language of the item. This is the principle language; the text may include other languages as well. If known, various standard classifications and identification numbers are shown next. See below for an explanation of the codes used. One or more symbols may appear at the bottom of the listing; see below for an explanation of these symbols.

At the very bottom of the page is the date the bibliography entry was last updated.

External Links

The bibliography detail popup may show links for digital resources. These are links to external sites that give more information about the item, and in some cases provide a digital copy of the referenced texts. Some of the external websites may require a subscription or other payment to view all of the informaton or to to allow you to download any available digital copy. The owner of the Medieval Bestiary website does not receive any part of such payments and has no control over the content of the website or any downloadable content. In some cases you may be able to access the full content by signing in with an academic, library or other institutional authorization, or by registering or creating an account (sometimes free, sometimes paid) with the website provider.

Symbols

These symbols may appear in the bibliography pages.

Details available: Many of the bibliography items have additional information available, including notes or an abstract, classification numbers, etc. If this symbol appears next to an item, detail information is available. When you click on the symbol, a new window will open, showing the details for the item. See Bibliography Details above for more information.

Electronic/digital text: Same as the "Details available" symbol above, except that the item referred to is available in digital format. A URL link to the digital item is normally supplied.

Web site or page: The item is a Web site or a page on a Web site. The site or page URL will be included in the citation.

Adobe Acrobat (PDF) document: The document is a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader or similar software to view it.

Bibliography status 1: The item has been seen by the bibliographer, and the citation details and notes have been confirmed. This is the highest level of reliability.

Bibliography status 2: The item has not been seen by the bibliographer, but the source of the citation is considered to be reliable, and therefore the entry is probably accurate.

Bibliography status 3: The item has been not seen by the bibliographer; the accuracy and completeness of the citation is uncertain. These entries should be used with caution.

Standard Classifications and Identifiers

The following are the abbreviations used in the bibliography for various publication classification and identifying systems. These codes will appear near the bottom of the bibliography detail page if the information is available.