Research

Reference Books (located in the book stacks on the main floor of the library) are useful for choosing a topic, finding basic information on a topic and for mining the bibliography associated with specific articles.

• Encyclopedia of the Novel (2 vols.)  PN41.E487 1998
• Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature (4 vols.)  PS21.E537 2004
• American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies (numerous vols. & supplements)  PS129.A55
• Literature and Its Times (4 vols. & 2 supplements)  PSN50.L574 1997
• Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century (4 vols.)  PN771.E5 1999

Use CONSORT and OhioLINK to find books for your "research essay".
Use a "Keyword" search to find material that may be included within a book.

Databases lead you to journal articles on a particular topic. These sources give you a citation to an article and often a summary of the contents of the article.  Some articles in databases are full-text meaning  there is a link to either a pdf or an html version of the complete article.

Use OhioLINK's "FindIt!" to locate a copy of the material you want.  The "FindIt!" page also will help you format a reference citation  and on this page you will find a link to Denison's Interlibrary Loan form in case you need to order a copy of an article.

• MLA International Bibliography  An index to books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Coverage includes literature from all over the world.
• Humanities International Complete
• Arts and Humanities Citation Index
• Literary Reference Center  is a comprehensive database that provides a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes. LRC combines information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing. LRC includes: plot summaries, synopses and work overviews articles of literary criticism full text of literary journals author biographies book reviews author interviews and images of key literary figures LRC also includes full text of selected classic and contemporary poems and short stories. Full text of classic novels is anticipated by Fall 2006. As reference material, LRC includes full text of a number of literary encyclopedia and guides.
• Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. This scholarly collection offers full text coverage of information in most areas of academic study.

The following two databases focus on literary criticism:

• Literary Index indexes various series including The Dictionary of Literary Biography.
• Literature Criticism Online is a full-text compilation of literary commentary both scholarly and popular.

• MLA Citation Guides: Bedford St. Martins and MLA Citation Guide by OSU Librarians
• Denison Library Location Guide