LibGuides: English: A Guide to Library Research: Overview

Welcome!

Welcome to the English and Literature guide! Below are some of the best places to find scholarship and research related to the fields of literature, writing, composition, and related fields.

We have additional databases that collect full text of novels, poetry, and plays based on timeframe, country of origin, or an author's identity. These can be found in the A-Z list on the left-side menu.

Please contact your librarian, Liz Svoboda, if you need help with your research projects.

Frequently Used English & Literature Databases

Gale Literature
Includes full text of literary works, journal articles, literature criticism and analysis, reviews, author biographies, and expertly written work overviews.
Combines Gale's literary databases into one cross-searchable research and study environment. Covers authors and their works, literary movements and genres, book reviews, and more from these Gale reference series:
- Gale Literature Criticism
- Gale Literature Resource Center
- Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors
- Gale Literature: Dictionary of Literary Biography
- Gale Literature: LitFinder
- Literature Criticism Online
- Literature Resource Center
MLA International Bibliography
The MLA International Bibliography is a subject index for books, articles and websites published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It is produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), an organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature. It contains over 2.2 million citations from more than 4,400 periodicals (including peer-reviewed e-journals) and 1,000 book publishers.
The definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, film, dramatic arts, and the history of printing and publishing, covering scholarly publications from the 1920s to the present. It is produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), an organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature.

International in scope, it includes over 2.7 million citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations from 6,000+ periodicals (including peer-reviewed e-journals) and 1,200 book publishers. While the majority of records are from English-language publications, at least sixty other languages are represented including French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish.

Includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the MLA Thesaurus, a collection of thousands of subject terms and personal names used in indexing the bibliography.
JSTOR
Provides full-text access to issues of academic journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences. It also includes books and primary sources, and current issues of journals.
Mostly 3-5 years & older full text. African American studies, anthropology, botany, business, ecology, economics, education, general science, geography, history, language & literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, sociology, statistics.

Dates of coverage vary by journal title. All go back to the very first issue published, but most have a "moving wall" embargo that excludes issues from the most recent X years (where X can be anywhere from 0 up to 10 years, depending on the particular journal; most are in the 3 to 5 year embargo range).

Hint: Use documents to find useful keywords and concepts, and retrieve matching JSTOR content, via JSTOR Text Analyzer.
Oxford English Dictionary (OED), 3rd ed.
Most complete & authoritative dictionary of the English language. 3rd edition in progress, with 2nd edition entries.

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English: A Guide to Library Research

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Frequently Used English & Literature Databases