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Funeral Services

Use this guide to find and evaluate information and resources related to funeral services education and funeral directing. Students in this program learn about mortuary law, restorative art, funeral directing, embalming and psychology of grief.

Ebook Databases

Search for Death, Grief, Bereavement, Funeral Customs, Cremation, etc.

Subject Encyclopedias, ebooks and print

Encyclopedias provide a basic understanding or overview of entries. A select list of titles for background reading:

Select Ebook Titles, STLCC Libraries

Select Print Titles

Subject heading in Classic Catalog: 

Death -- Social aspects.  (scroll to the bottom of this page for additional subject headings)

About Books

Reference Books

Reference Books are the best places to find concise summaries and background information on a topic. Reference books cannot be checked out of the library. Some of them are available as databases or ebooks. 

Circulating Books

Circulating books (books you can check out) may also provide summaries and background information, but usually go into greater depth about a topic.

Using Books for Research

Using books for research does not always mean that you need to read the entire book.

  • Use the table of contents and the index to find where in a book information about your topic is located.

  • The introduction to a book may be a good place to find background information on the topic the book is about.
  • You should read enough of a book or chapter to understand what an author is saying and quote her correctly.
  • Sometimes chapters in books are complete works written by different authors, making them ideal for research.

Search the Classic Catalog

Search for books using St. Louis Community College's Classic Catalog.


 

eBook: Youth and Funerals, Funeral Service Foundation

Keyword Searching

Some examples of keyword searches include

  1. grief AND customs
  2. death AND attitude AND funeral*
  3. funeral AND attitude*
  4. psycholog* AND death
  5. embalming

NOTE: The asterisk (*) truncates a term and will retrieve all forms of the word that follow the truncation symbol. For example, psycholog* will retrieve psychology, psychologist, psychological, etc. The asterisk can also be used as a wildcard for an unknown letter, as in cemet*ry, etc.

Subject Searching

Results from your keyword searches will help you identify appropriate subject headings. Below are just a few examples of subject headings you will find in the STLCC Catalog.

Because most library users are not familiar with Library of Congress Subject Headings, it is often a good idea to begin with a keyword search, but this is a list of assigned subjects that may be useful:

  1. Funeral Rites And Ceremonies (check subheadings)
  2. Bereavement (check related headings and subheadings)
  3. Bereavement--Psychological Aspects
  4. Cremation
  5. Grief
  6. Mourning Customs (check related headings and subheadings)
  7. Death -- Social Aspects 
  8. Burial (check subheadings)
  9. Death Care Industry (check related headings and subheadings)
  10. Embalming (check related headings and subheadings)
  11. Undertakers and undertaking​ (check related headings and subheadings)

St. Louis Community College Libraries

Florissant Valley Campus Library
3400 Pershall Rd.
Ferguson, MO 63135-1408
Phone: 314-513-4514

Forest Park Campus Library
5600 Oakland
St. Louis, MO 63110-1316
Phone: 314-644-9210

Meramec Campus Library
11333 Big Bend Road
St. Louis, MO 63122-5720
Phone: 314-984-7797

Wildwood Campus Library
2645 Generations Drive
Wildwood, MO 63040-1168
Phone: 636-422-2000