Research Guides: English Language and Literature: MA ENGL students

Graduate Students - Loan Periods, etc.

As a graduate student:

you may sign out up to 100 books from the stacks
your loan periods (for regular stack items) will be 120 days from the date of sign-out, with unlimited renewals (*unless the book is recalled)
you have access to the wonderful graduate study space on the 6th floor of the Library!

ENGL 5F01 Slides - September 2020

Reference Tools

Reference tools aren't just for the basics - the tools listed below actually provide a wealth of information for advanced researchers.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
- Biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the near present
- Coverage expands each year
- Limited to 6 simultaneous users.
- Permitted Uses
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The OED reveals the meaning, history, etymology, and pronunciation of over half a million words, tracing the usage of words through over 2 million dated quotations from a variety of English language sources, including history, literature and popular works.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism This link opens in a new window
- Find entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.
- Permitted Uses

Literary Research Guide by James L. Harner
Call Number: 8th Floor PR 83 H34 2008
ISBN: 9780873528085
Publication Date: 2008
An excellent resource for identifying sources on a variety of literary periods and genres.

Literary Research Series
books that focus on particular literary regions and periods - offering sources and tools to use

Finding and Borrowing Books

Books are an important form of scholarly communication, particularly in the Humanities. Tips:

Try to identify the appropriate LC Subject Headings and use Omni to discover books at Brock and use WorldCat or Google Books to search out a wealth of materials.
Locating a bibliography on your author or topic is KEY to quickly and easily finding a compendium of resources to work from. Here's an example of a search in Omni for the bibliography of William Faulkner.
You can also use ProQuest Dissertation & Theses for their bibliographies to locate obscure resources.

Omni

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
WorldCat can help researchers to search combined catalogues from around the world for books, audiovisual materials, videos, digital files, theses and journal articles.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global This link opens in a new window
Provides subject, title, and author access to almost all American dissertations accepted at an accredited institution since 1861 and full-text of over 100,000 dissertations and theses.

Literature Databases

The top research databases for literature research are the MLA International Bibliography and the Annual Bibliography of English Language & Literature, which may be searched together through Literature Online. Note that these tools index not only articles but also books and book chapters (that may or may not be at Brock).

Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
- Poetry, prose and drama from the 8th to 21st century with criticism and reference material
- Includes Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)
- Permitted Uses
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Produced by the Modern Languages Association of America, is the fundamental research tool for the humanities. The database is an index of international scholarly materials on modern language, literature, linguistics, and folklore.
Omni This link opens in a new window
Omni can be an effective tool to discover interdisciplinary resources and book reviews. *it is a great supplement, once you have searched MLAIB & ABELL
Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Does your literary topic branch into history? Use this resource to find additional sources. For North American history, be sure to consult America History & Life from the databases page.

Locating Scholarly Journals and Researchers

Google Scholar can be useful for discovering those authors and articles that have been cited by others. Note: in the Humanities, it can be more challenging to track citations as there is not a comprehensive tool to use. Web of Science now includes book citation index so it is possible to track citations for journal articles and books!

example cited by in Google Scholar

MLA Directory of Periodicals This link opens in a new window
This is the best source for identifying serials that specialize in an author or topic and for determining where to submit a manuscript. *check the journal website for the most current information.
Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new window
- Scholarly resources across all disciplines
- Access to Cited Reference searching
- Permitted Uses