• An author search will lead you to a variety of biographic and critical overviews.
• A title-author search will select only those full text resources that directly comment on the specific literary work.
• By using the authors-by-type option, you also can search by nationality of the author, genre, literary theme, or literary movement. For example, suppose you are interested in finding out if there were other German writers besides the brothers Grimm who wrote fairy tales. You would select "fairy tales" as the genre and "German" as the author nationality to get a hyperlinked list of authors who meet these two criteria.

19th-Century Literary Criticism: This full-text database provides access to reviews and scholarly essays representing critical responses to 19th-century literary works from the moment of publication onward.

Subject Encyclopedias

I. Genre- or Period-specific Encyclopedias (not a comprehensive list)

• Arts and Humanities through the Eras
• Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English (search by author and/or original language)
• Encyclopedia of the Novel
• Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era
• World Literature and Its Times

II. Language- or Nationality-specific Encyclopedias (not a comprehensive list)

• Oxford Reference Online (electronic full-text versions of several of the Oxford Companion series, including the Oxford Companion to German Literature, Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English, etc.). After entering the site, scroll down and click on the "Literature" link.
• Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature, Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish Literature, or the Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature
• Run a search in SIMON with the language or national literature (i.e. "Latin American Literature") on one line, and "encyclopedia" on the second line to find additional resources.

II. Author- or Work-specific Encyclopedias (not a comprehensive list)

• All Things Austen: An Encyclopedia of Austen's World
• The Cervantes Encyclopedia
• Run a search in SIMON with the author name or work title on one line, and "encyclopedia" on the second line to find additional resources.

Identifying Scholarly Secondary Sources

You will need to identify and locate relevant journal articles, books, and essays within books that will help you illuminate your thesis. The MLA International Bibliography is the preeminent database for literary studies. If you are researching a literary text, MLA must be your first stop.

MLA Search Tips Always use the "Advanced Search" interface: Always include at least the author and/or the title of the work as one of the required facets to search: Use the thesaurus to identify the proper terminology for additional facets related to genre, literary theme, scholarly approach, etc: Use truncation to save time (wom*n will pick up both "women" and "woman"). Make full use of limiters to get the best results:

 

The MLA database provides you with a citation, but not the actual article or book. In addition, many of the citations will be to materials that are not available in Collins Library, but can still be obtained for you from other libraries. You will need to plan ahead to give yourself enough time to obtain such materials. Below are guidelines for obtaining books and journal articles.

Books or Essays in Books

1. Begin with SIMON. When searching for an essay in a book, remember to search by the title of the book, not the title of the chapter.
2. If the book is not in SIMON or is in SIMON but is checked out, go to SUMMIT. If the book is available through SUMMIT, you can request it by entering your name and your full UPS ID number (including the initial zeroes). It takes two to four business days for SUMMIT books to be delivered to the Circulation Desk.
3. If the book is not available in SIMON or SUMMIT, go to WorldCat. If you find the title there, click on the ILL (Interlibrary Loan) icon and fill out the required information. Books requested from WorldCat usually take a minimum of two weeks to arrive.
4. From within the MLA database, click "check library catalog for book," then search by ISBN.

Journal Articles

1. First search the Journal Locator by the title of the journal, not the title of the article. If the article is available full-text, a link to the appropriate database will be provided. If the journal is available in microform or paper format, a link to the SIMON record will be provided. Current periodicals are located on the first floor of the library and bound periodicals and microform are located in the basement.
2. If the Journal Locator returns zero results, there is no need to search any other database. Simply log onto ILLIAD and submit your article request. An electronic copy of the article usually will be provided to you in less than a week, although occasionally the lending library mails a photocopy instead. In either case, you will be notified by e-mail that the article is now available.
3. From within the MLA database, click "Check Journal Locator for full-text availability."

Using RefWorks

Sign up for a RefWorks account. You'll need to choose a user name and password. If you are accessing RefWorks from off-campus, either use the EZ-Proxy RefWorks link or enter the group code ( available from a librarian--the code cannot be posted for obvious reasons).

If desired, create folders for specific projects:

Export references from databases into your RefWorks account. Instructions for specific database vendors are available here. You also have the option of entering information manually.

If desired, you can write up an abstract for each reference, assign references descriptors that you can use later to search for specific references, or write down any other notes:

To format a bibliography, select the output style (such as MLA or Chicago), the file type you wish to create, and the specific folder (if using folders):

To format both your paper and your bibliography, you first will need to download the Write-n-Cite software to your computer:.

After doing so, you then will be able to activate your Refworks Account from within your Word document. While writing your paper, simply click on the "cite" button next to the reference that you wish to cite. Write-n-Cite will insert a code that you will need to modify to indicate the specific page(s). For example, here is a sentence with the citation coding inserted:

Paine explores the various interpretations and transformations of Tibetan Buddhism in the West {{297 Paine,Jeffery 2004; }}.

You will need to indicate the specific page number by entering a switch code (/s) and the page number before the semi-colon:

Paine explores the various interpretations and transformations of Tibetan Buddhism in the West {{297 Paine,Jeffery 2004/s43; }}.

Save this document and then return to your RefWorks account (not Write-n-Cite). This time, you will format both the paper and the bibliography:

Carefully proofread the resulting document and bibliography!

Content contact: Peggy Burge ~ Collins Library ~ University of Puget Sound ~ last updated March 3, 2009