EN138 Fantasies of Modernity (Stubbs): Resources

The Journal of Modern Literature is one of the many peer-reviewed  journals indexed in Colby databases.

Scholarly journals:

• report original research in a specific discipline
• use in-text citations and bibliographies
• typically contain peer-reviewed articles
• are particularly important to academic research.

Look for options in databases to narrow results to scholarly peer-reviewed articles.

The date slider enables one to limit the results to a specific date range.

One can also change the sort function (top right) from "Relevance" (which can be imperfect in its determination) to "Date Newest"

• In-Text Citations
• Works Cited Page
• Sample Works Cited Page

• Library Subject Guides
• English Subject Guide
• Choosing a Database
• Evaluate Sources
• Citation Help

Or make a copy (File > Make a Copy) of the Research Log Google Doc.

KEYWORD SEARCH

• In library catalogs and many databases, keyword searches only look for EXACT MATCHES.
• Experiment with SYNONYMS and related terms.
• To narrow results, try using QUOTATION MARKS to glue together words in phrases, titles or an author's name. "Bread Givers"
• An ASTERISK is a wild card that stands in for different endings of a word. immigr* = immigrant, immigrants, immigration
• Use AND between terms to narrow results to items containing both terms ("working class" AND Steinbeck)
• Use OR between items (within parenthesis) widens results to items containing any one term (death OR dying)

SUBJECT SEARCH

Subject searches take you to books that have been tagged as being about that person or subject. Identify SUBJECT HEADINGS by checking the item records found in a keyword search.

Sample Subject Headings:

• Harlem Renaissance
• American Literature African American Authors History and Criticism
• United States Social conditions  1918-1932
• Depressions in Literature
• Immigrants in Literature

To find subject headings for an author, do a Subject Search using the author’s name (last name first): Baldwin, James (Select Subject from first drop-down option in CBBcat.)

Note that subjects which are authors can have the subject sub-division, Criticism and Interpretation.

Not very many search results?  Look for broader subject headings in item records. Browse these areas in Miller Library's bookstacks. Books covering broader topics may include chapters or significant passages on the author you're interested in. Check a book's table of contents and index.

AUTHOR SEARCH

To find items by authors, do an Author Search (last name, first name).

ARTICLES

Not available in full-text? Request through ILLiad. Another library may be able to automatically send a PDF in just a few hours.

In databases, look for Request from ILLiad or Request from another library links when you are directed to a screen that says full-text is not available at Colby.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Libraries also scan book chapters into PDFs. If the book you want is not in CBBcat or if it is only in print and you need to access it digitally, use ILLiad to request a book chapter or two. (Copyright law won't allow the scanning of an entire book.) If you don't have chapter information, search the title of the book in Google Books. You may be able to see the Table of Contents by clicking  "Preview."

Check the works cited, notes, references and bibliographies of every relevant article or book. You may discover additional books or articles 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 (articles)
• CBBcat (books, media available through Colby)
• MaineCat (books, media available regionally)
• Hathi Trust (sometimes has full-text digital versions of older books or articles)
• WorldCat (if can't find resource locally)

The CITED BY feature in GOOGLE SCHOLAR allows you to discover who else has cited a relevant article or book.

This can be particularly useful when you have a older article and want to find more up-to-date research.

Put the title in Google Scholar and click on Cited by at the bottom of the record. This is another way of following citation trails to find good sources.

Search for physical and digital books, films and other media in our library catalog.

A book of literary criticism can be by a single author or can be an edited anthology with chapters ("book articles") on different aspects of the book's general theme.

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

PHYSICAL ITEMS: In a CBBcat item record, click on CBB Request to order books from Bates, Bowdoin or the Annex (with pickup at the Miller Service Desk). Use Call Numbers in an item record to browse the Miller Library bookstacks. You might discover nearby items that are not showing up in searches. Check the contents page and index of each item.

DIGITAL ITEMS: look for a small circular red E in the icons to the left of your results .

Or use the drop-downs on the CBBcat search page, for a more precise search.

OneSearch searches multiple resources at once. It should be used only for very precise searches.

Use Advanced Search and limit by format.

To find an article listed in a bibliography, enter title of article in top row search box. You may need to also add the last name of the author in the second box.

To find book chapters discussing a writer or an artistic work, enter the name of the writer or the work in the search box and check the box Book Chapter in the "Show Content Type" limiter.

To find book reviews, enter the title of the book in the search box and check the box Book Review in the "Show Content Type" limiter.