English 106 ~ Fall 2002

Reference Sources

The following are materials available in the Reference Collection and online which may prove beneficial.

• American Authors, 1600-1900. R 810.9 K96A
• Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC). R 809 C761 ~ also available online. To access this from off-campus, go here.
• Dictionary of Literary Biography. R 810.9 D554 ~ also available online. To access this from off-campus, go here.
• Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism (NCLC). R 809.034 N714
• Twayne Authors Series ~ a series of electronic books that provide criticism of works by major authors from ancient times to the present. To access this from off-campus, go here.
• Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (TCLC). R 809.04 G152t

• Quick Searches offer a good way to start looking for books in Illinet Online. You can either look for particular items (such as works by a particular author, or under a particular title), or you can do keywords searching. Use the main words describing your topic. For example, to find books about or by Ernest Hemingway, try the following Quick Search:

Type the word Hemingway

• The above search yields items with the word Hemingway anywhere in the description of the item; some of these may be about Ernest Hemingway, and others may not. To do a more focused search for literary criticism on Ernest Hemingway, try the following:

Select Boolean, and type in Ernest and Hemingway and criticism

• You can also do a browse subject search, which is a more precise way of searching. Illinet Online uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (or LC subject headings) to arrange and organize information. Unlike keywords, you can't simply make these up; you have to find out what the exact terms are and enter them in Illinet as a subject search. One of the handy things about doing research on authors is that you can pretty much guarantee that their name will be a subject heading. To find criticism on Kate Chopin, you can do the following Quick Search:

Select browse subject, and type in Chopin Kate

You'll get a listing of possible subject headings; browsing down, you'll see an entry for Chopin, Kate, 1851-1904 Criticism and interpretation. Click this subject for a listing of books on this topic.

• Some helpful subjects for finding books or doing interviews and gathering oral histories:
  • Interviews--authorship
  • Interviewing
  • Oral history
  • World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives

• Guided Keyword Searches allow you more flexibility. Click the appropriate tab, and fill in the blanks as desired. You can change your searching options to look for either some or all of the words you've typed in, and to look in different areas of the item's catalog record.
  
  
• Ordering books from other libraries ~ Illinet Online allows you to request books held by 44 academic libraries in Illinois. 
  
  
• How do I get a book that is not available in the library?

Back to the Top

• Academic Search Elite ~ A good place to start. Includes references to scholarly as well as popular periodicals. Some of the magazines included herein include Time, Newsweek, and the Economist.
• Periodical Abstracts ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and some full text for magazine and journal articles, including from the Economist, Redbook, and Rolling Stone.
• WilsonSelectPlus ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and full text for a variety of magazines and journals, including Ebony, People, and Parenting.

Newspaper Articles (Elmhurst College users only)

While you can often find some of the text of newspaper articles from their online counterparts, such as the Chicago Tribune, you often cannot get the full article, or access to older articles. This is why it is important to remember that the library subscribes to a variety of newspaper sources.

• Wall Street Journal ~ full text from 1985 to present. On campus access only.
• New York Times ~ full text back to 1999, with indexing available back to 1990. For older articles, try ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times, which has full text articles back to 1851. On campus access only.
• Chicago Tribune ~ full text from 1985 to present.
• NewsIllinois ~ includes full text of selected AP and Tribune articles about or related to Illinois. On campus access only.
• Academic Universe ~ accesses a variety of news and business sources, many of which are full text.
• Newspaper Source ~ full text from more than 100 U.S. and international newspapers. Includes sources such as USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The (London) Times, and transcripts from NPR's Morning Edition.

Where Is It? (Or, Getting Your Hands on an Article When It's Not in the Database)

• How do I find out if the Elmhurst College Library has the periodical I need?
  • Search for the periodical title in Illinet Online.
  • For example, search for the title Teaching Tolerance.
  • Click the link Check Availability to get a listing of the volumes available.
  • If you don't find the periodical you need, take a look at the list, Full Text Periodicals Available Online. You can also call or e-mail the library to inquire about a specific title or ask a question.

• How do I get an article from another library?
  • If an article is not available from our collection, it will be retrieved via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). This process takes 7 to 10 days, so leave yourself plenty of time.

• How do I know whether an article is useful to me?
• Learn how to critically analyzing information sources.

• Librarians' Index to the Internet ~ try searching for "oral history" or "interview" to get information on a variety of interesting sites; also search under "biography"
• International Oral History Association ~ click on the button "Related Sites" for some helpful links
• My History is America's History ~ funded by the NEH, a project designed to help you explore your family's history
• Oral History Questions ~ from a genealogy group on RootsWeb, a list of suggested questions to ask
• About.com ~ while a commercial site, the area on genealogy has a lot of helpful resources, including a section on Writing, Publishing, and Oral History and hints on oral histories in general

• Citing Sources ~ from Duke University Libraries
• Citing Electronic Sources ~ a list of web sources, from Anderson University
• Resources for Documenting Electronic Resources ~ from Purdue's OWL
• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 4th edition. 1995.  Reference R808.042 M685 1995 ~ Ask for this at the Temporary Library, CSTC 213
• Writing and Citing Assistance: MLA Style ~ a collection of links, courtesy of the EC library

• The Language of Information Literacy
• Texas Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT)
• Tips for Developing Effective Web-Based Library Instruction