REFERENCE

The following reference titles are available in electronic format.

• American Heritage Dictionary
  
  
• American National Biography (Biographical Dictionary)
  
  
• Dictionary of Old English (CD-ROM)
  
  
• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
  
  
• The Oxford English Dictionary
  
  
• Oxford Reference Online (Oxford Companions, dictionaries, etc.)
  
  
• Scribner Writers Series
  
  
• Thesaurus of the English Language

PERIODICAL DIRECTORIES

• MLA Directory of Periodicals
       Submission guidelines, descriptions, and contacts for journals in literature, folklore and modern languages.
  
  
• Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
      Information on new, continued, and discontinued magazines, journals, newsletters, newspapers, conference proceedings, and electronic publications in all subject areas. Indicates if a periodical is "refereed."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

These electronic bibliographies are useful for studying and researching topics in literature. A number of these titles are available in traditional printed format, as well as in electronic format. The paper titles often cover different years. Check Carrolline (the JCU catalog) for our holdings.

• MLA International Bibliography  
      An international bibliography covering scholarship in literature, linguistics, and folklore. All world literatures are covered, with the exceptions of classical Roman and Greek. For studies of these literatures, check L'Annee Philologique.
  
  
• American Literary Scholarship
       Bibliographic essays on important contributions to criticism in a given year.
  
  
• L'Annee Philologique
       A bibliography for Classical Studies, including Greek and Roman literature.
  
  
• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)  
      Lists scholarship on English literature and language with emphasis on British publications.
  
  
• Bibliography of American Literature (BAL)  
      Cites the first editions of authors who published in the belles lettres from the Revolution to 1930.
  
  
• English Short Title Catalogue
         Describes English or English-language letterpress materials. Contains records for items of all types published in Great Britain or its colonies or in English from 1473 to 1800.
  
  
• Francis (International Humanities and Social Studies)
         A database of multidisciplinary information on literatures in French and English, strong in comparative literature, literary history, and literary theory.
  
  
• Hand Press Books
         Includes records for European printing of the hand-press period (c.1455 to 1830).
  
  
• International Medieval Bibliography
       A bibliography of scholarship on the European Middle Ages (c.450 to 1500).  [Available in Reference area. Please ask a librarian for assistance.]
  
  
• Iter (Middle Ages and Renaissance)
         Cites articles and reviews pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400 to 1700).
  
  
• World Shakespeare Bibliography
         An international, annotated list of books, articles, audiovisuals, and other materials relating to Shakespeare.

FULL TEXT (Primary Sources)

The following full-text electronic databases provide the actual texts of literary works or of historic periodicals. A number of these databases allow for the searching of keywords in their contexts, making them useful as concordances.

• African-American Poetry (1760-1900)
  
  
• American Drama
  
  
• American Periodicals Series Online (1740-1900)
  
  
• American Poetry (17th-20th centuries)
  
  
• ARTFL (French Literature)
  
  
• Bible in English
  
  
• Early American Fiction (1774-1850)
  
  
• Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare
  
  
• Eighteenth-Century Fiction
  
  
• English Poetry Database (7th-19th centuries)
  
  
• English Prose Drama (13th-20th centuries)
  
  
• English Verse Drama (13th-19th centuries)
  
  
• Godey's Lady's Book (1830-1880) [Click on "Search" button.]
  
  
• HarpWeek: Civil War Era and Reconstruction (1857-1871)
  
  
• 20th-Century African-American Poetry
  
  
• 20th-Century American Poetry
  
  
• 20th-Century English Poetry
  
  
• Women Writers Online
  
  
• Yeats Collection
  
  

FULL TEXT (Secondary Sources)

The following online sources provide convenient full text access to criticism from books and articles, as well as full texts of reference books about literature. The titles offered reflect the licensing agreements the vendors have made with various publishers. While these services are not comprehensive, they are good places to acquire background, and to do basic or preliminary research.

• Literary Reference Center (EBSCO)
  
  
• Literature Resource Center (Gale)

DIGITAL MEDIA

• Digital Media Center
       Downloadable video, sounds, and images. This source includes educational films from Films for the Humanities and Sciences.

GUIDES TO BIBLIOGRAPHY

These selected bibliographic guides describe the range of finding tools available in the research of literature. They are shelved in the Reference Area.

• Bracken, Reference Works in British and American Literature
  
  
• Harner, Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies
  
  

LOCAL LINKS

• Department of English
  
  
• Humanities Resources Page (Grasselli Library)
  
  

The "Literature Resources Page" is maintained by Nevin Mayer, Library Liaison for the Department of English at John Carroll University. Send comments to mayer@jcu.edu. Last updated August, 2007.