.Literature Subject Guide: Recommended Databases

Critical essays on authors and their works and on literary themes and movements. Each author entry, following an introduction and overview, is comprised of criticism reprinted from journal articles and book chapters. Entries are typically 60-100 or more pages in length, and the critical articles are ordered chronologically. This online access continues but does not replace the extensive print volumes held in Hamersly Library's Reference collection: Contemporary Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Literary Index serves as a finding tool for the essays held in those volumes.

Full-text archives of more than 1300 scholarly journals across all disciplines, some of which date from the 19th century. One excellent use of a JSTOR search is when you are seeking a unusual phrase or wanting 19th century or early 20th-century scholarly articles; broader search results can be overwhelming. However, the other databases will lead you to JSTOR as appropriate, when the article is held in the full-text archive. JSTOR does not include recently published articles. Due to publisher restrictions, there is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issue and the issues available in JSTOR.

Indexes articles published between 1907 and 1984 in English-language scholarly journals and specialized magazines. Provides earlier coverage for some of the journals covered by MLA International Bibliography.

Less thorough in finding literary analyses than the other databases, but useful for finding reviews of books, drama productions, and films.

Virtually every aspect of modern life is covered in Readers’ Guide Full Text Mega, which features indexing for 460 periodicals from 1983 to the present, as well as full-text articles from more than 260 journals dating 1994 to the present. Articles provide access to illustrations, photographs and other original graphical data. Content is also constantly being added, as the database is updated on a daily basis to incorporate the latest information.

Includes recordings of definitive film and TV productions of more than 250 of the world's most important plays and more than 100 documentaries. Includes critically-acclaimed productions that feature leading actors and directors. Online streaming video legal and fully-licensed for research and classroom use.

The authoritative source on the origins of English words and their shifts in meanings and pronunciations over time. It illustrates a word's usage through dated quotation evidence taken from a wide range of literature and other print sources.