"To torment and to instruct might sometimes be used as synonymous terms."
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Subject Portal » English Literature » Course Guides »
English 99 : English Lit Seniors Colloquium (SC)
finding books:
Tripod
To locate books at the Tri-College Libraries:
4. Finally, search by those subject headings.
1. Start with a KEYWORD search.
2. Look at relevant items.
3. Note the subject headings assigned to those items.
4. Finally, search by those subject headings.
4. Finally, search by those subject headings.
Once you identify books you would like to check out, write down - or text yourself - the book title, location, and call number of the book. Then use the call number to find the book in McCabe Library.
- A-G call numbers are on the lower level of the library
- H-K call numbers are on the second floor of the library.
- L-Z call numbers are on the third floor of the library.
If all copies of a book in Tripod are checked out, use E-Z Borrow to request the book from a partner library. These books are delivered in 2-7 days.
deciphering the Library of Congress classification system:
OK, you're English majors. I'm sure you've discovered that your library call number home is on the 3rd floor in the P's.Why go anywhere else? Really, why? However, it is sometimes useful, if only to add to your store of arcane knowledge, to be passingly familiar with the rest of the classification scheme of most academic libraries. Letters stand for general bodies of knowledge, called “classes”. Each class is further subdivided into more specific categories. Yes, the P's are absolutely the best, but there are some other interesting sections as well:
B – Philosophy, Psychology, Religion
C – Auxiliary Sciences of History
D – History of Africa, Asia, Europe & Oceania
E – History: America
F – History: America
G – Geography, Anthropology
H – Social Sciences
J – Political Science
K – Law
L – Education
M – Music, Books on Music
N – Fine Arts
P – Language and Literature
PR - British Literature
PS - American Literature
Q – Science
R – Medicine
S – Agriculture
T – Technology
U – Military Science
V – Naval Science
Z – Bibliography, Library Science
A – General Works
B – Philosophy, Psychology, Religion
C – Auxiliary Sciences of History
D – History of Africa, Asia, Europe & Oceania
E – History: America
F – History: America
G – Geography, Anthropology
H – Social Sciences
J – Political Science
K – Law
L – Education
M – Music, Books on Music
N – Fine Arts
P – Language and Literature
PR - British Literature
PS - American Literature
Q – Science
R – Medicine
S – Agriculture
T – Technology
U – Military Science
V – Naval Science
Z – Bibliography, Library Science
finding journal articles:
MLA international bibliography
Provider: ProQuest
Provides citations to journal articles, books, working papers, conference proceedings, bibliographies, and other materials. Areas covered include literature, language, linguistics, film, theatre and folklore. Covers 1926-present.
Literature resource center
Provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors.
Project Muse
Provides access to journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Disciplines covered are humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
JSTOR
Provides full-text and page images from many of the top journals in most academic disciplines. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years ago.
Periodicals index online (Chadwyck)
Index to journal articles in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, including some published as far back as 1770. Includes periodicals in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, and other Western languages.
getting the articles you've found:
In MLA, and indeed most databases that don't have the full-text of the article, there is a 
icon next to each citation. Click on it to find out if the article is available in full-text online from the campus where you are doing your research, to search Tripod for the journal in print, or to request the item through interlibrary loan. If does not appear in your database, use Tripod to search for the journal title in your citation.
icon next to each citation. Click on it to find out if the article is available in full-text online from the campus where you are doing your research, to search Tripod for the journal in print, or to request the item through interlibrary loan. If does not appear in your database, use Tripod to search for the journal title in your citation.If the journal is in print or online at one of the other two schools, you can request that the journal or article be sent to you. If a journal in not in Tripod, you can request the article using ILL. In both cases, follow the directions on the EZ-Borrow/ILL page
reference sources:
We have a large number of subject encyclopedias on various topics. You may be able to get some good background information easily by consulting them. Since your topics are so diverse, I've only included a few sample titles here. To look for reference titles on your own, do an Advanced Search in Tripod and limit your search to SC Reference Collections.
Oxford English Dictionary
Contains the complete text of the 20-volume OED, 2nd edition, published in 1989. Presents the words that have formed the English vocabulary from the time of the earliest records down to the present day, with all the relevant facts concerning their form, sense, history, pronunciation, and etymology. Coverage current.
Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory & criticism
A full-text searchable database of articles on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also treats related persons and fields that have been shaped by or have themselves shaped literary theory and criticism. Each entry includes a selective primary and secondary bibliography.
The Oxford companion to English literature
The Companion concentrates on British authors, works, and literary forms, but includes many non-Briitsh historical figures and topics because of their significance to British literary culture.
The Oxford companion to American literature
Like its British counterpart, this is good for quick factual information or summary overviews with some critical comment on American authors.
digital literary archives:
Walt Whitman Archive
The Walt Whitman Archive is an electronic research and teaching tool that sets out to make Whitman's vast work, for the first time, easily and conveniently accessible to scholars, students, and general readers.
Literature On-line (Chadwyck-Healey)
Provider: Chadwyck-Healey
A full-text collection of poetry, drama, and prose. Includes complementary references sources. Offers access to information on English and American literature including bibliographies, and catalogs. Also provides access to online editions of literary works, discussion lists, electronic journals, and library catalogs. Includes links to English poetry texts, drama, and fiction. Also offers links to editions of the works of William Shakespeare, to American poetry, editions of the Bible, and Webster's dictionary.
Early English books online.
Contains digital images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Includes books, pamphlets, manuscripts and newspapers.
Early English books online text creation partnership.
Offers text editions for a significant portion of the Short Title Catalog of Early English books published between 1473 and 1700. Currently contains digital images for 125,000 works, distributed under the title Early English Books Online. Upon completion this resource will contain 25,000 searchable and readable editions that link to a corresponding image file. Covers 15th to the 18th century.
Eighteenth Century collections online.
Offers full-text access to English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 including books, pamphlets, almanacs, Bibles and treatises. Subjects covered include history, geography, fine arts, medicine, science, literature, language, religion, philosophy and law. Significant collections of women writers, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare are also included.
Voice of the Shuttle
Documenting the American South
Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes ten thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
American Memory
American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books.
Literary Resources on the Net
This set of pages is a collection of links to sites on the Internet dealing especially with English and American literature, excluding most single electronic texts, and is limited to collections of information useful to academics.
The Online Books Page (UPenn)
The Online Books Page is a website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all.
Hyper-Concordance
assembling a bibliography, citing sources, avoiding plagiarism:
Swarthmore Libraries' research FAQs
Includes a guide to citation styles and instructions for using the EndNote citation software package.
guide to citing sources, from Duke University
This guide deals with the proper way to cite various kinds of sources, demonstrating all the major citation styles (MLA, Chicago, Turabian, APA). See the "Assembling a List of Works Cited" guide for help with putting together a bibliography.
citation, paraphrasing, and avoiding plagarism
A handout from the Writing Center, explaining how to avoid plagiarism and when citations are necessary.
getting more help:
Contact Information: Anne Garrison, agarris1, x8492
If you need research assistance, I am at the Reference desk on Tuesdays 3:00-5:00 and Thursday nights, 7:00-10:00. You can also make an appointment and meet with me in my office, which is on Level 1 of McCabe in the far southeast corner. Or is it the northwest corner? I really don't know, but if you just keep walking around, you're bound to find me eventually!