Outline of this guide: MLA Style: Guides & Tools Reference Works: (Background Information) Exercises Books Articles

Other useful links: Book Review Sources Call Number Locations The Dewey Decimal System: An Outline The Library of Congress Classification System: An Outline RefWorks RefWorks: A Guide Research Log Research Planner Scholarly Articles: How to Identify Them Text a Librarian Theatre Review Sources

• Office hours:
  • Monday 1:00-3:00 pm
  • Tuesday, 3:00-5:00 pm
  • Wednesday, 1:00-3:00 pm
  • Thursday, 7:00-8:00 pm
• Also available by appointment.

• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2009.
  Reference Information Desk: LB2369 .G53 2009
  • Have an older edition of the MLA Handbook?
    For an overview of the changes in the 7th edition and examples of citations, see Documenting Sources in MLA Style: 2009 Update: A Hacker Handbooks Supplement, from Bedford/St. Martin's
• MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2008.
  Reference Information Desk: PN147 .G444 2008
  A guide for scholars and professional writers.
• RefWorks
  Use to capture, retain, and organize citations, generate bibliographies using MLA style, share references, and more. See also the library's guide to using RefWorks.

General tips:

• For etymologies, definitions, and information about the meaning and use of words in particular time periods, search The Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
• For information about specific critical methods or theoretical approaches, consult The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism.
• For biographical information, critical overviews of authors and their works, and general bibliographies of secondary sources, search Literature Resource Center.
• For more information, consult the reference works listed below.

• The Columbia Guide to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story. Ed. Blanche H. Gelfant. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2000.
  Reference Stacks R 813 C726
• The Continuum Encyclopedia of Modern Criticism and Theory. Ed. Julian Wolfreys. New York: Continuum, 2002.
  Reference Stacks PN94 .C695 2002
• Credo Reference
  A collection of online reference books, including a selection of literature resources, such as The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (3rd ed.), The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature, and the The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library
  A collection of over 300 electronic reference works; covers multiple disciplines.
• A Handbook to Literature. William Harmon. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
  Reference Stacks R 803 H747h9
• The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Ed. Michael Groden et al. 2nd ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2005.
  Reference Stacks PN81 .J554 2005
• Literary Reference Center
  Contains full-text biographies, book reviews, critical essays, journal articles, and plot summaries as well as author interviews, selected reference works, and thousands of classic and contemporary poems, short stories, and other texts.
• Literature Resource Center
  Contains full-text biographies, critical essays, journal articles, and excerpts of criticism and reviews about over 130,000 literary authors and their works; covers dramatists, essayists, novelists, poets, and other writers from all time periods. Includes: Contemporary Authors, The Dictionary of Literary Biography, and more.
• Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature. Ed. Jay Parini. 4 vols. New York: Oxford, 2004.
• Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. Ed. David Scott Kastan. 5 vols. New York: Oxford, 2006.
• The Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Ed. J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner. 2nd ed. 20 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
  Reference Stacks R 423 O98m
• Oxford Reference Online
  Contains the full text of over 250 dictionaries, encyclopedias, and subject-specific reference works published by Oxford University Press. Covers a wide range of disciplines and subject areas.
• The Poet's Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices. William Packard. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
  Reference Stacks R 803 P119p

1. Question 1
2. Question 2: compare the following records. How do they differ?
   • Record 1
   • Record 2
   • Record 3
   • For record 4, search for the article in Web of Knowledge.
3. Question 3

General search tips:

• Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to connect terms/concepts
• In most databases, the truncation symbol is a *
• Enclose phrases in double quotation marks " "

• Davidson Library WorldCat
  Lists the books, government documents, and journals, magazines, and newspapers in our library; also includes some article citations.
  • To locate works about an author, do an advanced search, enter the author's name, and limit to subject.
  Tip: for "Not" use -
• ebrary
  A collection of over 70,000 e-books published by over 220 academic, trade, and professional publishers; covers all subject areas. Also includes tools that allow you to create your own virtual bookshelf, bookmark pages, and add and save notes and highlights.
  Note: for full functionality, use the ebrary Reader and create an ebrary account for yourself. The ebrary plugin is on all library and ITS computers, but if you are using your own computer, you can download it from the ebrary home page.
• WorldCat Classic
  Lists books, periodicals, and other materials held by libraries around the world. You can submit an interlibrary loan request to borrow books that aren't available at Davidson. Note that you can also find these materials in Davidson Library WorldCat if you search "Libraries Worldwide."
  • Identify relevant Library of Congress Subject Headings in the Library Catalog first; you can then do a subject search in WorldCat Classic to find additional items with these subject headings.

• Google Books
  Be sure to limit your search to "Full view only" or "Public Domain only" in order to find books that you can view cover-to-cover and/or download.
  For more information about public domain, see our guide to works in the public domain.
• Hathi Trust
  A digital collection of works held by a number of major research libraries. Be sure to limit your search to "Full view only" to view works that you can view cover-to-cover.
  Note: as of October 2010, only 23% of works in the Hathi Trust are in the public domain. For more information about public domain, see our guide to works in the public domain.

Starting Points | Core Indexes & Databases for English | Other Article Indexes & Databases

General search tips:

• Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to connect terms/concepts
• In most databases, the truncation symbol is a *
• Enclose phrases in double quotation marks " "

• Academic Search Premier
  (1975 to present) Indexes popular and scholarly articles in a broad range of subject areas; also includes citations to book reviews and citations to articles in several national newspapers.
• OmniFile Full Text Mega
  (1982 to present) Indexes articles from over 3,000 scholarly and popular periodicals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences; also includes the full text of selected articles from over 1,650 of these periodicals.

• Annual Bibliography of English Language & Literature (ABELL)
  Indexes journal articles and books published from 1920 to present; also includes citations to book reviews. Covers all literatures in English as well as the English language, bibliography, textual studies, and the history of publishing.
  ABELL is a particularly good source of information about books published in the U.K. Many of these works do not appear in the MLAIB.
• Literature Resource Center
  Contains full-text biographies, critical essays, journal articles, and excerpts of criticism and reviews about over 130,000 literary authors and their works; covers dramatists, essayists, novelists, poets, and other writers from all time periods.
  Includes nearly all of the content in the following series: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Shakespearean Criticism: Excerpts from the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Poetry Criticism, and Short Story Criticism.
• MLA International Bibliography
  (1926 to present). Indexes journal articles, books, and doctoral dissertations in the fields of English, American, European, Asian, African, and Latin American linguistics, modern languages and literatures, film studies, and folklore.
  For more information, see the MLAIB Search Planner.
• Web of Knowledge
  (c. 1900 to present) A multidisciplinary resource that provides citations to articles in thousands of journals in the social sciences, humanities, and sciences.
• World Shakespeare Bibliography Online
  (1971 to present) Includes citations to articles, books, theatrical productions, and audiovisual materials related to Shakespeare; also includes performance reviews, books reviews, and film reviews.

• America: History & Life and Historical Abstracts
  (Time period covered: 1450 to present [world history]; prehistory to present [U.S. and Canadian history]. Publication coverage: 1954 to present). Indexes journal articles, book chapters, doctoral dissertations, and book reviews. (Each database can also be searched separately.)
• Contemporary Women's Issues
  (1992 to present) Indexes popular articles, scholarly articles, books, newsletters, and reports on all aspects of women's studies, including gender, sociology, education, political science, and health.
• Essay & General Literature Index
  (1900 to present) Indexes chapters and essays in edited collections.
• Humanities Abstracts
  (1907 to present). Indexes articles in over 500 English-language journals in the fields of archaeology, art, classics, communication, film, folklore, history, languages and literatures, music, philosophy, religion, and theatre. Also includes citations for book, theatre, and film reviews as well as interviews, obituaries, and some original creative works. Includes the full text of selected articles from 1995 to the present.
• International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance
  (c. 1982 to present) Includes citations to journal articles, books, essays, and doctoral dissertations on all aspects of dance, theatre, and the performing arts; international in scope. Includes the full text of 100 periodicals and over 350 e-books.
• JSTOR
  A collection of the back issues of over 1,200 electronic journals in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Note: JSTOR does not usually contain articles from the most recent 3-5 years.
  Tips: truncation symbol: +
• Periodicals Index Online
  (c. 1665-1995) Indexes journal and magazine articles as well as book reviews in a broad array of humanities, social sciences, and science subjects.
• Project Muse
  A collection of over 400 electronic journals in the humanities and social sciences.

Note: Decorative initials are public domain images from fromoldbooks.org.