Finding Literary Criticism

With your instructor-- If you have any questions about the assignment, get them cleared up BEFORE you spend time doing the research.

At the Reference Desk--2nd Floor North or 460-7025 or http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/referenc.htm
Let the Reference librarians help you develop an appropriate research strategy for your particular project.

Try this Assignment Calculator from the Univ. of Minnesota for help planning your time and executing the paper writing process.

SOUTHcat Catalog -what we own; open to anyone on the 'net. Keyword search author's last name and criticism; note call # area and go browse the shelves. Most literature (and its criticism, which is often shelved adjacent to the work) is on the 4th Floor South, but you need a call # to find it. Try the audiovisual tutorials.

NetLibrary -11,000 electronic books [subscription]

Reference Books- Reference Area, 2nd floor North: encyclopedias, reference books

E-Reference --subscription-based and free reference sources

OED-Oxford English Dictionary -
THE ultimate etymological dictionary

Oxford Reference Books-- full text of dozens of Oxford dictionaries, handbooks and companions

WorldCat from FirstSearch: --huge database of books from most U.S. and many world libraries

Dissertation Abstracts/Digital Dissertations -- abstracts and often a few full-text pages of dissertations and theses written in every academic field. Search with very broad subject headings. Theses and dissertations written at USA can be read full-text online.

RedLightGreen--database of the Research Libraries Group's 120 million books. Good for identifying books. Links to libraries, and with a login, will create a citation that's close to correct.

InterLibrary Loan -- order books or articles from other libraries; free if available in Alabama; but you must allow 7 days minimum.

Literature Resource Center [Under Gale/InfoTrac] selected full-text, from both books and articles; click on the "criticism" tab. Always use database's own print button.

JSTOR All full-text articles from 60 online journals; all articles are PDF format and at least 3-5 years old, but many much older articles. Use "economy" mode to print which you sent in "preferences." Always use database's own "print" button.

Periodicals Archive Online -- similar to JSTOR

Academic Search Premier [Under Ebsco] some full-text. Always use database's own "print" button.

MLA International Bibliography [Under Ebsco] The most important database for literary criticism (includes articles, books and chapters of books) , but it is not the easiest to use. It has some "linked" full-text, but does not include fulltext items in the database itself. Always use database's own "print" button.

Oxford Journals Online --particularly good for linguistics

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1890 - 1982) no full-text, but back in the time!

Fetch E-Journal Database - a database of titles and URLs to journals that are at least partially full-text and free on the public Internet

DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals. Free academic journals on the public Internet.