Use Databases to Find Articles
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MLA International Bibliography The Modern Language Association of America's database of journal articles, books, dissertations, working papers, proceedings, and bibliographies covering scholarship on literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, printing, publishing, rhetoric, and composition, with coverage from 1926 to the present.
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Literature Online (LION) A database of English-language literature, containing thousands of full-text works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, as well as journals, author biographies, bibliographies, criticism, and reference resources.
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JSTOR Full-text access to thousands of scholarly journals covering the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, plus monographs and other academic materials.
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Literature Resource Center Database providing full-text biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every time period and literary discipline.
Scholarly Journals
- report original research in a specific discipline
- use in-text citations and bibliographies
- typically contain peer-reviewed articles
Look for options in databases to limit results to articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. 
More About MLA
Photo: Old Textures by Tom Woodward
MLA International Bibliography
1. Take advantage of folders and the ability to export citations in MLA format
2. Set search limits before you begin searching
3. Try using Names as Subjects and add terms from critical vocabulary
4. Further refine your search by adding Subject Terms
Contemporary Reception Articles from 19th Century & Early 20th Century Periodicals
Title page of The Athenaeum, 1846, a British literary journal. The Athenaeum is searchable thru the British Periodicals database. Photo from The Library of Congress
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America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922 A searchable collection of historical U.S. newspapers spanning the period of 1690 to 1922, including thousands of small-town papers from all 50 states.
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19th Century British Library Newspapers The British Library's collection of 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century newspapers from around Britain and Ireland, with a special focus on newspapers aimed at the working classes and papers that contributed to important political and social movements.
OneSearch
ONE SEARCH
Searches multiple resources at once.
Use for very precise searches:
- Finding a specific article
- Finding book chapters on a topic
- Narrow, interdisciplinary subjects
For best results, use limiters: field drop-downs (Title, Publication Title), content type (articles, book chapters, book reviews), etc.
For topical searches, first consult CBBcat and individual databases.
ENGLISH RESEARCH GUIDE
Photo: Silent and Still by Jessica Neuwerth
Search Tips
KEYWORD SEARCH
Databases and catalogs may only find the exact combination of letters entered.
- Try a VARIETY OF SEARCH TERMS, synonyms and word combinations
- Use an ASTERISK to stand in for different word endings (critic* = criticism, critical, critic, etc.)
- Use QUOTATION MARKS to "glue together" a phrase ("stream of consciousness")
- Use AND between terms to narrow results to items containing both terms (Didion AND place)
- Use OR between items (within parenthesis) to widen results to items containing any one term (death OR dying)
- SCAN RESULTS FOR MORE SEARCH TERMS
SUBJECT SEARCH
Keyword searches are not looking for meaning and thus can miss important works in a field. Look at Subject Terms in item records to find items grouped by topic.
- Authors American Maine
- Globalization in literature
- English Literature 18th Century
- American Poetry African American Authors
In CBBcat, subject sub-divisions can be helpful in focusing your research.
TYPE OF SEARCH
Use the drop-down menus to choose type of search.
To find items BY authors, do an Author Search (last name, first name).
To find items ABOUT authors, do a Subject Search (last name, first name).
LITERARY CRITICISM
Keyword Search: "author's name" AND critic*" ("Natalia Ginzburg" AND critic*)
Subject Search: "author's last name, first name" (Woolf, Virginia)
Look for the sub-division: Criticism and interpretation
Following a Citation Trail
Check the WORKS CITED, NOTES, REFERENCES and BIBLIOGRAPHIES of every relevant article or book. You may discover another book or article perfect for your topic.
Hafley, James Robert, 1928 - The Glass Roof: Virigina Woolf as a Novelist. Berkely: University fo California Press, 1954. (link to bibliography)
One good source can lead to another!
Look for a Cited Work using:
- OneSearch (articles)
- Google Scholar (also check Cited By" in Google Scholar)
- CBBcat (books, media available through Colby)
- MaineCat (books, media available from other Maine academic and public libraries)
- Hathi Trust (sometimes has full-text digital versions of older books or articles)
- WorldCat (if can't find resource locally)
MLA Citation Help
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MLA Handbook 8th edition by The Modern Language Association, the authority on research and writing, takes a fresh look at documenting sources in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. Works are published today in a dizzying range of formats. A book, for example, may be read in print, online, or as an e-book--or perhaps listened to in an audio version. On the Web, modes of publication are regularly invented, combined, and modified. Previous editions of the MLA Handbook provided separate instructions for each format, and additional instructions were required for new formats. In this groundbreaking new edition of its best-selling handbook, the MLA recommends instead one universal set of guidelines, which writers can apply to any type of source. Shorter and redesigned for easy use, the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook guides writers through the principles behind evaluating sources for their research. It then shows them how to cite sources in their writing and create useful entries for the works-cited list. More than just a new edition, this is a new MLA style.Call Number: LB2369 .G53 2016 Colby Miller 1st Floor Reading Room Reference. Also Colby Miller 1st Floor Research Librarians Alcove
Older editions of the MLA handbook are also available. Many databases still use the 7th edition. OWL uses the 8th edition. Note the differences! Be consistent.
MLA 7th Edition: Falk, Cynthia G. "'The Intolerable Ugliness Of New York': Architecture And Society In Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence." American Studies 42.2 (2001): 19-43. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.
MLA 8th Edition: Falk, Cynthia G. "'The Intolerable Ugliness Of New York': Architecture And Society In Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence." American Studies, vol. 42, no. 2, 2001, pp. 19-43. EBSCO, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40643250. Accessed 19 Jan. 2017.
Find Books
Search for physical and digital books, films and other media in our library catalog.
To identify SCHOLARLY BOOKS, investigate/examine the:
- author (university affiliation, research specialty)
- publisher (academic or university press)
- writing style & intended audience
- arguments, analysis, study methodology
- notes, references, bibliography
REMOTE LEARNING: look for a small circular red E in the icons to the left of your results . These are online resources.
Or use the drop-downs on the CBBcat search page, for a more precise search.
ON CAMPUS: Order books for Miller pickup by clicking CBB Request in an item record. 
Miller Library bookstacks are also physically accessible when the library is open. Most literary works are on the two lower levels (S1 & S2).
Print books ordered from Bates, Bowdoin or other Maine libraries will take longer than usual to receive due to material quarantine protocols.
BOOK CHAPTERS THRU ILLIAD: A digital alternative is to click on Colby ILL in the right pane of CBBcat results and use the "Book Chapter" form to request a PDF of a chapter or two (copyright law limits amount copied). You will get an email with a link.
Tip: Google Books may have more info on a book's contents.
Reference Sources
Reference sources can provide definitions, terminology, facts, background information, context, biographies, interpretations, and bibliographies.
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Oxford English Dictionary The full text online version of the Oxford English Dictionary contains both the complete Second Edition and the New Edition in progress.
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Credo General Reference A search engine covering hundreds of reference works, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauruses, and books of quotations, plus subject-specific titles covering topics such as arts, business, history, law, literature, medicine, music, philosophy, psychology, religion, science, and technology.
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Literary Encyclopedia A literary reference work written by specialists from universities around the world, providing articles on authors, works, and literary and historical topics.
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Literature Resource Center Database providing full-text biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every time period and literary discipline.
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Oxford Bibliographies Online: American Literature Oxford Bibliographies Online is a scholar-curated library of discipline-based subject modules, designed to help researchers find reliable sources of information by directing them to chapters, books, websites, archives, or data sets.
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African-American Poetry A collection of historical African-American poetry, from the earliest recorded works to major nineteenth-century poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
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Twentieth-Century African American Poetry A database of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde and Rita Dove.
Ask for Help!
For questions big or small, we're happy to meet with you.
Laine Thielstrom
Working remotely 2020-2021
Karen Gillum
Miller 107