Literary Research

Developing a Search Strategy

• Look at our dictionaries and encyclopedias located in the reference collection for definitions of terms related to your topic and for general background information.
• Search our databases and journal collection to find recent articles on your topic.
• Search the Library Resource Catalog for resources relating to your topic.

Reference Collection

The reference collection is located on the main floor of the library. Some useful literary resources include:

• American Writers
  Gives detailed essays on American writers and an overview of their works.
  Call Number: PS129.A55 1974 to date
• British Writers
  Gives detailed essays on major British writers and their works.
  Call Number: PR85.B688 1979 to date
• Contemporary Literary Criticism
  Gives biographical information on contemporary writers. Includes an overview of the writer's work and commentary on his or her style.
  Call Number: PN771.C59.U33 1973 to 1999
• Drama Criticism
  Provides detailed essays on major dramatists and their works.
  Call Number: PN1601.D59 1991 to date
• European Writers
  Includes critical essays on major authors from England and the continent.
  Call Number: PN501.E9 1983
• The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
  Gives essays on people and schools of thought relevant to literary criticism.
  Call Number: PN81.J554 1994
• Masterpieces of World Literature
  Provides summaries and critical evaluations of well-known poetry, essays, plays and novels from around the world.
  Call Number: PN44.M3448 1989
• The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
  Includes essays on different types of poetry and common poetic devices.
  Call Number: PN1021.N39 1993

Journals--print and online

The Newbury College Library provides access to scholarly and popular articles in both print and online format. Magazines, journals, and newspapers are known as periodicals. Search the Library Resource Catalog by Journal Title to determine if the Library subscribes to a particular title.

Full-text articles are accessible by using the Library's databases. Home access requires using a valid Newbury College library card. These databases provide access to full-text articles, abstracts (short summaries of the articles), and extended citations (the title, source, date, issue, and page numbers of the article). Full-text articles may be printed within the Library. To retrieve articles that are only available as abstracts or extended citations, you should first check our Periodical Holdings List to locate the articles in hard copy or request them from Interlibrary Loan--see the Reference Librarian for help. The following databases are useful for researching literary topics:

• Academic OneFile
  Provides peer-reviewed, full-text articles from academic journals and reference sources, including topics in drama, fiction, literature, poetry, and short stories.
• Biography Resource Center
  Provides biographical information on authors, poets, dramatists, and other literary figures.
• JSTOR
  Provides full-text access to articles from back issues of journals published in the following subject areas: African American Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology, and Statistics.
• Litfinder
  Provides full-text access to poems, short stories and essays.
• Literary Reference Center
  Provides full-text access to author biographies, literary criticism, and masterplots. Allows you to browse by author or works.

Library Resource Catalog

• If you are searching for resources within the Library, the catalog displays Newbury's items first. You can also choose to search all Minuteman libraries at once or specify another location.
• You may search for resources by Location, Keyword, Author, Title, Journal Title, Format, or Subject Heading.
• The item record displays where a resource is located along with its call number and availability.
• A call number identifies where a book or other library resource is located in the library. The Newbury College Library uses the Library of Congress (LC) Classification System, which is comprised of 21 categories with numerous subdivisions under each category. The P class comprises language and literature. English literature is assigned the letters PR, and American literature is assigned PS.

Read a call number line by line: