Finding Literary Criticism

Take one of these ten paths, or try them all:

In the Library

1. The Pauline Whitaker Library has books filled with essays on authors and their works. First, look up the author's name in the library catalog to identify all the book resources the library has. When you find a book on the author, look in the index (in the back of the book) for a particular title and the pages where that title is mentioned or discussed.

2. There are many sets of works on authors and literature in the P section of the Reference books.  Scan the shelves in the REF PQ to PZ area to find volumes on British Writers, American Writers and others.

Online Library Databases

If you are off campus, logon My NWACC Connection (my.nwacc.edu), go to the Library tab and look in the Find Articles: Online Databases or Search Library Collections boxes. When on campus, you can also access most of these resources via the Find Articles link on the Library homepage (http://www.nwacc.edu/library). For electronic book databases, select Find Full-Text Electronic Books 24/7 on the library homepage.

3. In Literary Reference Center, enter the author in one search box and the title (if applicable) in another. If you choose an option from the Select a Field dropdown menu, please note “Subject Author” is the correct field for searching for information about the author in the search box; “Title of Work” is the correct field for searching for information about the title in the search box. The search fields “Author” and “Title” refer to the authors and titles of particular documents such as literary criticism articles—as opposed to the literary works themselves—in the database. Below the search boxes, you can specify the Document Types you wish to search (biographies, literary criticism, plot summaries, etc.). Also, be sure to explore the options under Limit Your Results. Check the Full Text box for optimal results.

4. In Gale Online Resources, there are several ways to access literary criticism.

a. Select Gale Virtual Reference Library and type the title or author’s name in the Find box to view articles from these popular reference sets: Drama for Students, Poetry for Students and Short Stories for Students.

b. Select Contemporary Authors and choose your search preference (author, title, subject, etc.) in the menu on the left-hand side of the screen; then enter your search terms. In the Advanced Search, increase the relevancy of your results by selecting an index next to the search box. If you would like to browse any of the indexes, select an index list (such as Ethnicity List) and enter “all” after the search prompt.

c. In Discovering Collection, use the Advanced search type. Type in the author in one search box and the title in the next, using the connector "AND". (Example: Ralph Ellison AND Invisible Man.) For the most results, choose Keyword (ke) in both search field dropdown menus to the left of the search term boxes.

d. You can also search multiple Gale databases at once. Type your search terms (Example: Ralph Ellison AND Invisible Man) in the Search box above the individual database selections, select the databases you wish to search (or just click the box next to “Select All”), and click the Search button. You will be directed to a PowerSearch screen where you can Refine Results with additional search terms,  Limit your results to full-text documents (recommended) and select a Tab to view the type of material (magazines, academic journals, etc.) you want.

5. In Britannica Online, search for the author's name. Select the main article (often the first on the list). To search related journal articles and websites, check out the Expand Your Research box inside the article.

6. In EBSCOhost, choose the Academic Search Premier database. Click Advanced Search. Type in the author in one search box and the title in the next, using the connector "AND". (Example: Amy Tan AND Bonesetter's Daughter.) For the most results, do not specify a search field option to the right of the search term boxes. Check the Full Text box.

7. To search the full-text electronic books in ebrary, click the Advanced option in the search tab and enter the author’s name in the search box; select Subject from the dropdown menu that follows. Enter the title of the work in the next search box; select Text in the dropdown menu that follows. Check out the “Improve search results with Search Tips” link for more detailed instructions on searching and viewing the search results.

8. To search electronic books in NetLibrary, select the Advanced Search option. Enter the author’s name in the search box; select Subject from the dropdown menu at the left. Enter the title of the work in the next search box; select Text in the dropdown menu at the left. The Help link in the upper-right corner provides more detailed instructions for refining your search and viewing the results.

Recommended Websites

9. Use the online Gale Literary Index to locate articles in the library's print reference books published by Gale Publishers such as Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400 to1800, Short Story Criticism, Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, and World Literature Criticism. To start, go to http://www.galenet.com/servlet/LitIndex. An Author Search leads you to a list of Gale publications with entries about the author. Works by the Author, listed alphabetically by title, appear after the general author entries. Print or write down the relevant publication information, including the volumes and page numbers appearing after the titles. Since the library does not own all of the titles indexed in this online resource, you will also need to check the library catalog to determine which titles (and volumes) are available for your use. (Please note:  For Gale’s Poetry for Students, Short Stories for Students, Drama for Students and Contemporary Authors, try Gale Online Resources in the Database section above.)

10. From the library's homepage (http://www.nwacc.edu/library), select Web Resources and then the Web Resources: Subject link. Next, select the Literature link in the Humanities section for an annotated directory of recommended websites.

This page was last updated on:  August 17, 2010 @ 8:35 pm