From Evert A. Duyckinick, A Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and Women in Europe and America (New York: Johnson, Wilson & Company, 1873).

Research Tips

• Research is a complex process. It does not proceed in a linear fashion, but rather is a cumulative endeavor. Give yourself plenty of time for your project. It is a good idea to map out on a calendar the specific stages of your researching and writing schedule. Your course syllabus offers some guidance with assignments and due dates; you also may wish to use Tuft University's Research Paper Navigator tool to get a general idea of what to include in your timeline.
  

• Keep careful records of your research journey: write down complete bibliographic information for the sources you find; note what keywords and subject headings you have used in your searches and which databases you have utilized. You can use a simple notebook as a research journal, or you might consider using an online knowledge management tool. The library provides a subscription to RefWorks, which has several features that allow users to create multi-lingual bibliographies. Also, the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University offers a free Firefox extension, Zotero, which is a research management tool that is especially conducive to note-taking.
  

• Cast a wide net initially, and only then begin to winnow out treasures.  By developing a context for your research you will be able make your close readings, analysis and interpretation richer in detail and more sophisticated.

Print reference resources are located on the first floor of the library, just off of the Learning Commons. Reference Atlases, unless otherwise indicated, are located on the shelves near the double doors of Technical Services. Reference books may not be checked out. When you are finished with a reference book, please place it on the book cart next to the Learning Commons information desk.

A. Subject Encyclopedias--Historical, Literary, and Cultural

Arts & Humanities Through the Eras. Vol. 5: Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment. Ed. Kristen Mossler Figg and John Block Friedman. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Call #NX 440 A787 2004 Reference. [Each volume in this series explores a specific era through in-depth articles on nine broad themes: architecture and design; dance; fashion; literature; music; philosophy; religion; theater; and visual arts. Each chapter also includes excerpts from primary source documents, glossaries of specialized terms, and bibliographies.]

Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850. Ed. Christopher John Murray. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004. Call # NX 452.5 R64 E53 2004 Reference.

The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature. Ed. Friederike Eigler and Susanne Kord. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. Call # PT 41 F46 1997 Reference. [This is a topic-oriented reference work. Use the index to locate entries where the work of specific authors is discussed.]

Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life. Vol. 4: 17th-18th Centuries; Vol. 5: 19th Century. Ed. Joyce E. Salisbury. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Call # GT 31 G74 2004 Reference. [Each volumes contains the following segments: Historical Overview; Domestic Life; Economic Life; Intellectual Life; Material Life; Political Life; Recreational Life; Religious Life; and Primary Sources (excerpts)].

Kindlers Neues Literatur Lexikon. Munich: Kindler Verlag, 1988. Call # PN 44 K55 1988 Reference. [This is a multi-volume encyclopedia of world literature written in German.]

Literary Criticism Online -- This full-text resource offers critical responses to writers and works dating from the moment of first publication up to the present.

Literature Resource Center -- This full-text database offers bio-critical essays on authors as well as a selection of scholarly criticism. It includes the electronic equivalent to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 90: German Writers in the Age of Goethe, 1789-1832; and Vol. 94: German Writers in the Age of Goethe: Sturm und Drang to Classicism.

B. Dictionaries

Das Goethe-Wörterbuch im Internet. An amazing project!

Reallexikonder deutschen Literaturwissenschaft. Ed. Harald Fricke. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000. Call # PT 41 R43 1997 Reference. [This multi-volume set provides definitions of literary terms used in scholarship.]

Oxford Language Dictionaries Online -- This full-text resource includes not only the Oxford German-English and English-German Dictionaries, but also many additional features such as grammar and verb charts and pronunciation software that lets you hear how each word sounds.

• Bibliography of articles and books published on all aspects of German literature.
• Emphasis is on German-language publications
• Not cumulative; you must search each volume of the index for all years.
• Current issues (most recent two-three years) are located in the Current Periodicals section on the first floor of the library.
• Back issues (1973-2005) are housed in the Bound Journals section in the basement of the library.

Bibliographie der deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (Print index; published once a year. Located in the Reference section of the library: Call # Z 2231 B5 Reference. The library holds the volumes from 1970 forward.)

Historical Abstracts --This database indexes scholarly articles and books covering all aspects of world history from 1450 up to the present.

MLA International Bibliography -- This is the preeminent database for literary studies. If you are researching a literary text, MLA should be one of the databases you consult.

Depending on your research topic, you may need to consult additional databases. You can use the Research Gateway subject pages to identify additional databases that might be useful.

 

Obtaining Books and Articles

BOOKS

• Start with SIMON, the catalog of books and other materials held at Collins Library
• For books not available (or checked out) in SIMON, try SUMMIT, a combined catalog of holdings in over 30 regional academic libraries. Books ordered through SUMMIT will be delivered in two to four business days.
• For books not available in either SIMON or SUMMIT, try WorldCat. Books identified through WorldCat may be ordered through Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad). Books ordered through Interlibrary Loan can take from ten days to a few weeks to be delivered.
• When searching for books in any catalog, try to identify several Library of Congress Subject Headings for your topic; this will make your searching process more efficient. Library of Congress Subject Headings can be found within catalog records for individual books; merely click on a subject heading to see what other books are available with that same topic. Here are some relevant subject headings for this course:
  • Classicism -- Germany
  • Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749 1832--Criticism and Interpretation
  • Romanticism -- Germany
  • Sturm und Drang Movement

JOURNALS

• To identify scholarly journal articles on your topic, you will need to search one or more DATABASES.
• If you have a citation to a specific article, go to Journal Locator
  • Type in the title of the journal (NOT the title of the article)
  • If the journal is available, the full-text electronic sources (i.e., JSTOR, Academic Search Premier), if any, will be listed first, followed by information about any paper or microform holdings
    • Note carefully the dates of holdings
    • Current (most recent year or so) periodicals are located on the first floor, just off of the front reading room
    • Earlier issues of paper periodicals are located in the compact shelving areas in the basement.
    • Paper periodicals cannot be checked out, but you may make photocopies.
    • Microform is also located in the basement. Making copies from microform is free of charge.
  • If Journal Locator indicates that there are no local holdings in any format, you may request the article through Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad).
    • Most articles requested via ILLIAD will be delivered electronically (usually as PDF documents) in about a week.
    • Articles delivered as photocopies will be sent via campus mail to your Wheelock Student Center mailbox.
    • If you request an article written in a language other than English, you must change the default English setting from your ILLiad request and type in the name of the acceptable language in the notes field: