I seem to find myself in situations where a commentary or dictionary mentions some ancient item that I'm sure is in my library, though I don't know where. Just yesterday I was trying to track down the text of the 18 Benedictions from Jewish tradition. After quite a bit of searching (far more than I'd like to admit - particularly when I realized that a Google search would've been much faster) I found it in the Worship in the Early Church Anthology. But I'd like to know how to go through this process more efficiently.
For example, I was reading the Psalms earlier today and found myself looking closer at Psalm 5:9. My beautiful Cited By Tool quickly brings my attention to the heading Dirige from the Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature. All kinds of fascinating things here (not least of which is that I now know where the term 'dirge' comes from).
The term Dirige is derived from Vg Ps. 5:9 and Ps. 5:8 (“Dirige, Domine Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam” [“Direct, O Lord my God, my way in your sight”]). In Christian liturgy, Ps. 5:8 was used as the first antiphon in the first Nocturn of Matins in the Office of the Dead. The first word, Dirige, came to signify the recitation of Matins for the souls of the dead and ultimately the recitation of the entire Office of the Dead.
Jeffrey, D. L. (1992). In A Dictionary of biblical tradition in English literature. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
However, let's say I now want to track down the first Nocturn of Matins in the Office of the Dead (I don't want to read about it, I want to read it). Should I type in "Office of the Dead" into the Search field? I have a Verbum package and am willing to bet that it's somewhere in my library. But such a search primarily returns other resources commenting on the Office of the Dead. What would be the best way to go about finding the text itself?
