Information Resources for English, Literature, and Linguistics

Best Resources for Finding Articles

• MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association)
  • Over one million citations to books, scholarly journals, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies from languages, literatures, linguistics and folklore. 1926 - present.
• Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
  • Index to literature on all aspects of the study of the nature and use of language. 1973 - present.
• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (1920- present)
  • Over 900,000 searchable records of monographs, scholarly articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, and collections of essays and dissertations.
• ComAbstracts
  • Indexes journal articles and books in the professional literature of communications. Coverage varies for each journal, but is listed on the About ComAbstracts page.
• American Periodicals Series (1741- circa 1900)
  • Growing collection of magazines & journals published in late colonial Anglo-America and the U.S., valuable for research in History, Literature, Journalism, and other disciplines. Microform edition also available.
• Arts & Humanities Search
  • A citation index covering over 1,136 titles from leading arts and humanities journals. Includes the ability to search particular authors' works to find out who is citing them. 1980- present.
• America History & Life
  • Index of journal articles, dissertations and book reviews on all aspects of North American history (United States and Canada). 1964- present. (To search multiple EBSCOhost databases, click the "Select Databases" tab.)
• Book Review Index Online Plus
  • Over 5 million book review citations from magazines and scholarly journals, with links to full-text for over 630,000 reviews.
• Index to Early American Periodicals
  • References to articles from U.S. periodicals from 1700-1935. Full articles can be found in the American Periodicals Microfilm Collection in the Reference Department.(microfilm S1, S1a, S1b)
• 19th Century Masterfile
  • Series I: Index for 19th century USA and British periodicals.
    Series III: Indices for the New York Times Index, 1863-1905 (full-text available from ProQuest); New York Daily Tribune Index, 1875-1906; Palmer's Index to the Times (London), 1880-1890; Index to the Oregon Spectator, 1846-1854.
• Ethnic NewsWatch
  • Articles, editorials, reviews, etc. from newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press. Search in English or Spanish. 1990- present.
• Readers' Guide Retrospective
  • Full-text articles from general interest periodicals. Current coverage is 1890-1982.

Additional Resources for Finding Articles & Other Information

• Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost)
  • Indexes 7,800+ scholarly journals, with full text for 4,000 titles. Covers social sciences, humanities, education, computer science and engineering, general science, medicine, ethnic studies, and more. 1965- present for selected titles. (To search multiple EBSCOhost databases, click the "Select Databases" tab.)
• Alt-Press Watch
  • Indexes newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press. Covers a broad range of critical issues confronting contemporary society. 1994- present.
• Nation Digital Archive
  • Search issues of The Nation from 1865-2004. Browse by date, author, or subject. Full-text available, excluding most recent 1 month.
• New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
  • Full page and article images with searchable full text; articles from the first issue, Sept. 18, 1851, through 2004. Some articles and photographs by freelance writers and photographers are not included.
• Contemporary Women's Issues
  • Interdisciplinary and international index of journal articles, newsletters, and research reports relevant to women and girls. 1992 - present.
• GenderWatch
  • Full text collection of articles covering women's and gender topics.
• ECO - Electronic Collections Online (Electronic Journals)
  • Indexes 5,400+ scholarly journals in a wide range of subjects. Abstracts and full-text are available for approximately 400 journals to which UNR subscribes. To limit results to these journals, check the "full-text" box. 1995- present.
• Historical Abstracts
  • Index of journal articles, dissertations and book reviews on all aspects of world history from 1450 to the present, excluding the United States and Canada. (To search multiple EBSCOhost databases, click the "Select Databases" tab.)
• In the First Person
  • Indexes English language letters, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, oral histories and other personal narratives held in respositories worldwide or in published volumes publicly available on the Web.
• Ingenta
  • Indexes more than 20,000 journals covering all subject areas, with tables of contents for the journals included.
• TOCS-IN (Tables of Contents of Journals of Interest to Classicists)
  • Indexes 185 Classics, Near Eastern Studies, and Religion journals that are included in L'annee Philologique. 1992- present, with earlier coverage for some titles. Updated 3-4 times per year.
• Article1st
  • Index to 12,600 + journals pertaining to science, medicine, technology, social science, business, humanities, and popular culture. Now includes journal Tables of Contents (formerly in Contents1st). 1990 - present.
• PapersFirst
  • Index to conference papers contained in the British Library's collection of proceedings of symposia, conferences, and workshops. 1993 to present.
• ProceedingsFirst
  • Index to the proceedings of conferences from the collection held at the British Library. Contains tables of contents for most proceedings. 1993 - present.
• Dissertations & Theses: Full Text (formerly Dissertation Abstracts)
  • ProQuest Dissertations and Theses — Full text is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. It includes 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations from around the world from 1861 to the present day together with 1 million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works.
• WorldCat
  • A catalog of library materials in all formats from libraries all over the United States and the world. Contains more than 61 million items.

Full-text Resources

• LION - Literature Online
  • A searchable library of English and American literature, poetry, Shakespeare, the Bible, and literary reference sources.
• Literature Criticism Online
  • Find articles from these collections: Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC), Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 (LC), Nineteenth-century Literature Criticism (NCLC), Poetry Criticism (PC), Short Story Criticism (SSC), Twentieth-century Literary Criticism (TCLC).
• Literature Resource Center
  • Comprehensive literary database for biographical and critical coverage of major authors, including fiction, drama, and poetry throughout history. Drawn from Contemporary Authors & Dictionary of Literary Biography and many other literary reference sources published by Thomson Gale.
• Oxford English Dictionary
  • The complete text of the 20-volume Second Edition OED. Quarterly updates of the in-progress third edition. Entries include etymology, usage quotes, and date charts.
• Early American Fiction
  • Full texts of first editions of early American novels and short stories written before 1850 by authors of significance during their lifetimes.
• Faber Poetry Library
  • 140 volumes by 50 of the most influential poets of the twentieth century.
• HarpWeek
  • Harper's Weekly, from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras (1857-1877).
• Middle English Compendium
  • Electronic versions of: The Middle English Dictionary;  HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MED bibliographies; and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, as well as related links.
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries
  • Search or browse writings and biographies of over 1,500 women, representing various age groups, life stages, ethnicities, and geographic regions. Includes published and previously unpublished materials, from colonial times to 1950.
• Dolley Madison Digital Edition
  • Dolley Payne Madison was the most important First Lady of the nineteenth century. This is the first complete edition of her known correspondence. Browse letters by time period. Search by text, names, dates, topics, or places. Select Contents for a list of letters sorted by date, author, or recipient. 1788 to June 1836.
• Oral History Online
  • Full-text English language oral histories, such as Ellis Island narratives, Black Panther party interviews, and other oral histories. Also indexes oral histories freely available on the Web. 1930- present (some histories are undated).
• Past Masters
  • Search or browse scholarly editions and translations of classic published and unpublished texts in the humanities, particularly Western philosophy and English letters. Includes the Oxford Classical Dictionary. More information and links to individual databases.
• eHRAF World Cultures
  • A web-based collection of ethnographic and other texts indexed by culture and subject. Formerly known as eHRAF Collection of Ethnography. Produced by Human Relations Area Files, Inc. at Yale University.
• Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide
  • Comprehensive work on the history, scholarship, social, cultural, and legal aspects of pornography and American society. Includes bibliographies and links to court cases cited in the Guide.

Other Resources

• ArchivesUSA
  • Directory of 5,500 repositories and 141,178 collections of primary source material in the United States. Search 58,000 finding aids, indexed by subject. Links to 5,000 online finding aids.
• Global Books in Print
  • Records of in-print, forthcoming, and recently out-of-print books from over 44,000 North American publishers. Updated weekly.
• Britannica Online
  • Online version of the complete encyclopedia with more than 75,000 entries, links to related Internet sites, and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
• Access World News
  • From the index page, click the link that reads, "America's Newspapers".
    Index and full-text of international print and broadcast news. 1996- present.
• Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
  • Over 10,000 entries for authors, works, literary landmarks, literary and critical terms, mythological and folkloric figures, fictional characters, literary movements and prizes.
• Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged
  • A dictionary of the current vocabulary of standard written and spoken English language, from 1755-1996, containing 450,000 vocabulary entries.

Electronic Books

• Biographical Companion to Literature in English
• Business Writing Skills: A Take-Charge Assistant Book
• Careers for Writers & Others Who Have a Way with Words
• Columbia Guide to Standard American English
• Elements of Grammar
• ESL: A Handbook for Teachers and Administrators in International Schools
• Great Jobs for Communication Majors
• Handbook for Technical Writing
• Journal and Newsletter Editing
• Literature of Nature: An International Sourcebook
• NTC's Mass Media Dictionary
• Opportunities in Publishing Careers
• Politics of the Essay: Feminist Perspectives
• Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Essays
• Unbiased Editing in a Diverse Society