1.
Locating Background Information:
At the beginning of a
research project, consult specialized dictionaries or encyclopedias to obtain
an overview of a concept, a school of thought, a specific work or a particular
author's contribution to the field.
-
Dictionaries of Literary Criticism and Terms contains a list
of specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias available in Owens Library.
-
Sources of Literary Criticism contains a list of sources available
in Owens Library that give background information and criticism of specific
works of literature.
-
Biographical Sources about Authors contains a list of biographical
sources available in Owens Library.
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2.
Identifying Keywords:
| Concept
1: Symbolism |
Concept
2: Moby Dick |
|
symbolism |
Moby Dick |
|
allegory |
The Whale |
| interpretation
|
Herman
Melville |
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3.
Searching the Library Catalog
The Library
Catalog uses subject headings and subdivisions to classify the content
of books and other materials. A (Library of Congress or LC) subject
search can be narrowly focused and, if it is successful, produce relevant
results. If a subject search does not produce good results, try a keyword
search. (More information about keyword searching will be found later
in this lesson.) Literary subjects often have several subdivisions. Typically
literary subject headings are structured as shown below:
Geographic Location Literature -- Time Period -- Subdivision or Topic
English Literature -- 19th century -- Bibliography
Sources about literature
from specific countries are available in the Library catalog under subjects
like the one shown below. When entering subject headings in the library catalog
search form leave off all punctuation and capital letters.
For example:
American
literature -- 20th century -- history and criticism
would be entered as
American literature 20th century history and criticism
Specific types or genres
of literature may be listed under a separate subject heading or subdivision
like the examples shown below:
Children's
literature
Satire
English drama
-- comedy
English drama
-- tragedy
Many authors have subject
headings which can refer to books or other items with biographical information
and critical evaluations of their work. Author subject headings appear like
the examples shown below. When entering author subject headings in the library
catalog search form, leave off all punctuation and capital letters.
For the subject
heading of the author Herman Melville, enter melville herman to locate
the heading, Melville, Herman, 1819-1891.
The subdivision
Bibliography locates items with information that lists the author's
own work and also critical evaluations of the author's work.
Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 -- Bibliography.
The subdivision
Criticism and interpretation locates items with information that critically
evaluates the work of the main subject.
Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Sources about literary
topics may also be retrieved by performing a keyword
search. With keyword searching,
search terms can be combined with the Boolean operators and, or,
not. A sample keyword search appears below:
melville
and criticism
Truncation allows
users to stem words or retrieve root words with several endings. The truncation
symbol in the Library catalog is an asterisk(
*). The search shown below
will locate records in the Library catalog that include the words symbol, symbolic,
symbolically, etc.
symbol*
Various other techniques
can be used to limit the search. Read the information under Help
with Searching link.
Other
Library Catalogs:
From the Library Catalog
link, the Towers catalog (holdings of Conception Abbey, Missouri Western State
College,
North Central Missouri College, and Northwest Missouri State University) can
be searched as one catalog by clicking on Towers
Home. The MOBIUS Catalog (holdings of most academic institutions in
Missouri) can be searched as one catalog by clicking on MOBIUS.
Use Other
Library Catalogs to search for books not available in the MOBIUS Union
Catalog.
Any materials not available
at Northwest can be requested through Interlibrary
Loan.
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4.
Finding Periodical Articles:
Use periodical
indexes to locate article citations and summaries on literary topics. Be sure
to use the keyword synonyms (formulated at the beginning of the search and refined
during the library catalog search) to use as search terms in the periodical
indexes. Genres of literature, famous novels and authors may be referred to
by variant terms.
- Gale and EBSCOhost
on the library's Search
for Articles page provide selected online full-text articles as
well as article citations and summaries in the humanities. The truncation
symbol in these databases is an asterisk (*)
- The MLA International
Bibliography on the library's Search
for Articles page provides indexing to over 6,500 sources, including
journals, dissertations, books and book chapters. It covers linguistics,
modern languages, literature criticism, and folklore.
- A concise list of
indexes appropriate for literary research is available on the "Find the
Database You Need" page under English
.
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5.
Print Sources in Owens Library:
-
An online index to the many print literature products produced by the Gale
Group is available at Literary
Index. Owens Library owns most of these titles and this is an easy
way to locate information about either authors or titles. This is a good
starting point for research.
- Contemporary
Authors, a hardcover publication, provides biographical information
about living and deceased writers. Use the Contemporary Authors
Cumulative Index (Ref 920 C76, index) to locate biographies in
Contemporary Authors and other reference sources. Listed
here is a finding aid
for locating print sources indexed.
- Gale
Literature Criticism Series features articles about world authors and critical
analysis of the works of world authors. Listed here
is a finding aid for locating these print sources.
- Use the bibliographies
listed below (from the Course/Subject Resources page under "Literature")
to locate other print literary sources available in Owens Library:
Literary
Criticism Sources
Drama
and Theatre Sources
Poetry Sources
Short Story Sources
- Use the bibliographies
(lists of sources) in books, journal articles, web documents or other sources
to identify related information about literary topics. Sources not available
in Owens Library may be requested through Interlibrary
Loan.
6.
Selected World Wide Web Resources:
- Use the Literary
WWW Resources page to locate Internet resources recommended by Owens
Library information professionals.
- Use the Search
Engine Tips & Tricks page to learn how to enter focused, efficient
searches in search engines recommended by Owens Library information professionals.
- Evaluate literary
web sites found with search engines using the criteria suggested on the
Evaluating Web Resources
page.
7. Use
Citing Sources to cite references
found in print and on the Internet.
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