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

Other useful links: Book Review Sources The Dewey Decimal System: An Outline Film Review Sources 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, 1:00-2:00 pm
  Location: Consultation Room (directly behind the reference desk)
• Also available by appointment.

• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2009.
  Little Library Reference Desk: REF 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 Desk: REF 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 Guides & Encyclopedias | Works About Specific Authors & Texts

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 Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003.
  Reference R 801.95 M975b
• The Continuum Encyclopedia of Modern Criticism and Theory. Ed. Julian Wolfreys. New York: Continuum, 2002.
  REF 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.
• A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms. Edward Quinn. New York: Facts on File, 1999.
  Reference R 803 Q7d
• A Dictionary of Literary Devices. Bernard Dupriez. Trans. Albert W. Halsall. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1991.
  Reference R 803 D943g-T
• Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs. Ed. Jean-Charles Seigneuret et al. 2 vols. New York: Greenwood, 1988.
  Reference R 803 D5541
• Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Ed. Paul F. Grendler. 6 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1999.
  Reference R 940.2 E56
• 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 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.
  REF PN81 .J554 2005
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. Ed. David Scott Kastan. 5 vols. New York: Oxford, 2006.
  Reference R 820.3 O982

• Biography Reference Bank. H.W. Wilson, 2003- .
• Gale Virtual Reference Library
  A collection of over 300 electronic reference works. Includes:
  • Scribner's British Authors series
• 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
  • Feminist Writers
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. ed. H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2004.
  Reference R 920 N2111
  See also the first edition: Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee (22 vols.; 1885-1901; reprinted London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1963-1965), shelved in Reference at call number R 920 N211.
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. Ed. David Scott Kastan. 5 vols. New York: Oxford, 2006.
  Reference R 820.3 O982

• A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature. Gordon Williams. 3 vols. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Athlone Press, 1994.
  Reference R 820.9 W7231d
• A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Sexual Puns and their Significance. Frankie Rubinstein. 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1995.
  Reference R 822.33 GR896d
• A Glossary of Shakespeare's Sexual Language. Gordon Williams. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Athlone Press, 1997.
  Reference R 822.33 DW723g
• Music in Shakespeare: A Dictionary. Christopher Wilson and Michela Calore. New York: Thoemmes, 2005.
  Reference R 822.3 W746m
• Shakespeare and Feminist Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography and Commentary. Philip C. Kolin. New York: Garland, 1991.
  Reference R 016.82 S527k
• Shakespeare and Minorities: An Annotated Bibliography, 1970-2000. Parvin Kujoory. Landham, MD: Scarecrow, 2001.
  Reference R 016.82 S527ku
• Shakespeare and the Classical Tradition: An Annotated Bibliography, 1961-1991. Comp. Lewis Walker. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  Reference R 016.82 S527wa
• Shakespearean Concepts: A Dictionary of Terms and Conventions, Influences and Institutions, Themes, Ideas, and Genres in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. Simon Trussler. London: Methuen, 1989.
  Reference R 822.33 GT873s
• Shakespearean Criticism: Excerpts from the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1984- .
  Contains excerpts of criticism; most excerpts are available online through the Literature Resource Center.
• Shakespearian Bibliography and Textual Criticism: A Bibliography. T.H. Howard-Hill. 2nd ed. Signal Mountain, TN: Summertown, 2000.
  Reference R 016.82 S527h2
• Shakespeare's Books: A Dictionary of Shakespeare Sources. Stuart Gillespie. London: Athlone, 2001.
  Reference R 822.33 FG478s
• Shakespeare's Legal Language: A Dictionary. B.J. Sokol and Mary Sokol. New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press, 2000.
  Reference R 822.33 GS683s
• Shakespeare's Military Language: A Dictionary. Charles Edelman. New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press, 2000.
  Reference R 822.33 GE21s
• Shakespeare's Theatre: A Dictionary of his Stage Context. Hugh Macrae Richmond. New York: Continuum, 2002.
  Reference R 822.33 GR532s
• Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion. David Crystal and Ben Crystal. New York: Penguin, 2002.
  Reference R 822.33 GC957s
• Shakespeare's World and Work: An Encyclopedia for Students. Ed. John F. Andrews. 3 vols. New York: Scribner's, 2001.
  Reference R 822.33 GS527
• Which Shakespeare? A User's Guide to Editions. Ann Thompson. Philadelphia, PA: Open Univ. Press, 1992.
  Reference R 822.33 ET468w

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 " "

• Library Catalog
  Lists the books, government documents, and journals, magazines, and newspapers in our Library.
  • To locate works about an author, do a subject search for the person's name (last name first).
  • To locate bibliographies on a person or topic, do a keyword search and add the following: su bibliography.
  Tip: truncation symbol: $
• Early English Books Online (EEB0) (1475-1700)
  Includes over 125,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, proclamations, almanacs, and other publications printed in Great Britain, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and British North America from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries.
  Note: Does not include periodicals or newspapers.
  To print more than one page of a document, you need to "Mark" the document, view your "Marked List," and then click on the "Download Document Image sets in PDF format" link (not the link to download the record). Once the document is downloaded, you can print out a range of pages or the entire document using the print function in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• ebrary
  A collection of over 55,000 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.

• 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 April 2011, only 26% 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.

• WorldCat
  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.
  • Identify relevant Library of Congress Subject Headings in the Library Catalog first; you can then do a subject search in WorldCat to find additional items with these subject headings.

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.
• 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.

• Historical Abstracts and America: History & Life
  (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.)
• Essay & General Literature Index
  (1900 to present) Indexes chapters and essays in edited collections.
• Film Indexes Online
  (1893 to present) Contains both Film Index International (FII) and The American Film Institute Catalog (AFI). Includes full production and cast information for films from over 170 countries as well as plot summaries, production notes, and citations to reviews, criticism, and articles on film and film personalities.
• Film & Television Literature Index
  (c. 1937 to present) Lists articles, film reviews, and book reviews from over 300 film and television periodicals; international in scope.
• 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.