Getting Started: Orienting yourself to your topic

Below is a partial list of general reference works on literature written in English. Our Reference Collection contains many much more specific works to help you get started on your research. Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies
Published by the Modern Language Association, 2002 (REF PR83 .H34 2002)
This work is organized by type of resource and type of literature as well as by subject. The Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism.
Edited by Martin Coyle, 1991 (REF PN81 .E53 1991)
Literary figures and movements are included in this encyclopedia.

Top of the page Finding Articles

Use indexes and databases to locate periodical articles on your topic. Databases contain a combination of full text articles (ready to read online) and article citations. Not every issue of every journal is covered in the databases, so you may need to check our print indexes in the reference and periodical collections to find citations. Remember
Journals are made up of collections of Articles.

• To find article authors, titles, and other information, search one of our databases (such as the ones listed below).
• Then, to find the full text of an article, search our Journals List for the Journal name (not the title of the article) to see if we have a subscription to it. If you do not find your journal listed there, check Bridge for the Journal name to see if we have the journal, volume, and issue that you need before ordering the article via Interlibrary Loan. Some databases have a button next to each citation that says "Find It." This is an easy way to see if we have access to the article via one of our library subscriptions.

Databases

MLA International Bibliography
This is one of the most comprehensive databases for literary studies. Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier is great because it is a multi-disciplinary database. Notice that you can limit your searches so that they only return articles from scholarly (peer reviewed) journals. ProQuest Research Library
This is another multi-disciplinary database. It may index slightly different journals, so if you didn't find what you were looking for in Academic Search Premier, check here before giving up. Arts & Humanities Citation Index
Covers more than 1,140 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals in a broad range of disciplines from 1989-present. If you are new to citation searching, you might find these instructions helpful. Literature Online (LION)
This database searches primary texts. Select the database that best reflects the time period, genre, and nationality you wish to search. JSTOR
Similar to the MLA International Bibliography, this database allows you to search for articles on your topic. Try clicking on "Advanced Search" just to the right of the first search box. This will orient you to the search options available. Project Muse
This full text database searches arts, humanities, and social science journals. Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)
As part of Literature Online, ABELL indexes books, articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays, and doctoral dissertations from 1920 on. Worldwide coverage, including work in languages other than English. Includes some full text.

Print Indexes

Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-1995)
Published by Wilson Company (Periodicals AI3 .R4)
Indexes articles and reviews published each year and arranges them by author and subject.

Finding Books

You can find books several ways. For example you can find books:

• By searching Bridge (our online catalog) or WorldCat (a gathering of many library catalogs from around the nation and the world). When you find a book that looks helpful, scroll down the page and look at the "subjects." You can start to collect these standardized subject headings and do searches for other books that are about the same topic. Remember to enter these into a subject search using exactly the same words as you found in your original record. (For more information on subjects, see Subject Headings below.)
• By finding citations to books in reference works or other books you've looked at, journal articles you've read, or even your text books from class. Bibliographies are your friends!
• By browsing the shelves next to books that have been helpful. Our call numbers put books near each other if they are about the same thing, so if you find one really good book look at the ones near it.

Relevant Library of Congress Call Numbers

This is only a partial list of the call numbers pertaining to English literature. For a complete listing, go to the Library of Congress Classification Outline, provided by the Cataloging Policy and Support Office of the Library of Congress. PN1-6790: Literature (General)
PN441-1009.5: Literary history
PN610-779: By period
PN1010-1525: Poetry
PN1600-3307: Drama
PN3311-3503: Prose. Prose fiction PR1-9680: English literature
PR57-78: Criticism
PR111-116: Women authors
PR161-479: By period
PR500-611: Poetry
PR621-739: Drama
PR750-885: Prose
PR1490-1799: Anglo-Saxon literature
PR1803-2165: Anglo-Norman period.
PR2199-3195: English Renaissance (1500-1640)
PR3291-3785: 17th and 18th centuries (1640-1770)
PR3991-5990: 19th century, 1770/1800-1890/1900
PR6000-6049: 1900-1960
PR6050-6076: 1961- PS1-3576: American literature
PS126-138: Biography, memoirs, letters, etc.
PS147-152: Women authors
PS185-228: By period
PS241-286: Special regions, states, etc.
PS301-325: Poetry
PS330-352: Drama
PS360-379: Prose

Subject Headings

Library of Congress Subject Headings are the words and phrases that you will use to do a Subject search in Bridge (as opposed to a word search, where you may use any words you like). Because subject headings are created according to a specific formula, and because it is unlikely that you will be able to guess what phrases this formula will generate, it is often helpful to do a Keyword search on your topic, and, once you find an appropriate source, examine the subjects (usually found in the middle of the page as you scroll down). You may then conduct a subject search by clicking on the linked subject heading in Bridge. Keeping a list of the phrases you find in the subject headings can help you form more and more complex and effective searches as your research progresses. Although Literature, English literature, and American literature are Library of Congress Subject Headings (as are American poetry and English drama), you will probably get better results if you are more specific. If you are interested in the literature of a particular ethnic group, search for literature created by that group. For example, use Asian American literature (for example), but be aware that being too specific will greatly limit your results. You may also specify a time period, as in English literature 19th century. You may also search by the name of a particular writer (last name first) to find works about that author.

Top of the page Finding Current Biographical Information

There are biographies aplenty when you're looking for information on authors who lived some time ago, but for more recent authors (especially those that are still alive), these sources may be of use. For authors writing currently, check the web to see if they have personal web sites. Contemporary Authors
Biographies of 20th and 21st century novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists and scriptwriters. If you don't find what you need here, look in the Dictionary of Literary Biography (see below). Dictionary of Literary Biography
This is the print version of the Contemporary Authors database. It is more complete than the online version, so if you don't find what you need online, look here before you give up. This version also does a better job of giving you places to find out more about the author. To find an author, go to the latest volume having a cumulative index (the latest volume is listed below in the Further Information section of this and other English-related pages). The index will give you the volume number where you can find your author. In Bridge, do a keyword search for "Dictionary of Literary Biography" followed by the volume number. This will give you the location of the book you need. Authors are alphabetical by last name within each volume. If you don't find what you need here, ask a librarian for assistance.

Finding Book Reviews

Book Review Index
Published by Gale Research Company (REF Z1035 .A1 B62)
Indexes book reviews of all manner of monographs. Arranged by author and title.
Periodical Contents Index (1770-1990)
Indexes American and European scholarly journals. Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-1995)
Published by Wilson Company (Periodicals AI3 .R4)
Indexes articles and reviews published each year and arranges them by author and subject.

Top of the page Web Sites

Unlike the sources listed above, the resources in this section are selected from the free web.

Primary Sources

Project Gutenberg
This is a great source for finding searchable texts (as long as the text you're looking for is not copyright protected). Everything's in plain text so downloading is fast and easy and pretty much any computer of any age can interpret it for you. So far, there are over 16,000 texts available, and they're adding an average of 1 text per day.

Research

Shakespeare Resource Center
Editor J. M. Pressley
If you're looking for Shakespeare information on the web, this is a great place to start. The editor collects links to hundreds of Shakespeare-related sites. Be sure to follow up this research with research in one of the databases listed above. There are also quite a few excellent sources in the PR section of the reference books.

Language and Usage

Bartleby.com
A multi-use reference site, which includes links to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (as well as other quotation resources), Roget's Thesaurus, dictionaries, English usage resources, and literary reference works such as a hypertext version of the 18-volume Cambridge History of English and American Literature. A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
by Robert Harris
An online glossary of terms used in literary study. Oxford English Dictionary
The ultimate reference on the development of English words and phrases. The online version is constantly being updated. The print version (2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. [Ref PE1625 .O87 1989]), however, is still a pleasure to use. RhymeZone
A free, web-based rhyming dictionary. It can also be used to locate inexact rhymes, definitions, and synonyms.

Citation

Tips for Citing Internet Sources
Carleton's page of links on citing Internet resources, which is currently being revised. I particularly recommend Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgment from Dartmouth College.

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