In the First Person -This resource indexes English-language personal
narratives from over 4000 collections from all over the world, providing
information on collections where these valuable historical documents
can be found (and in many cases, direct links to the documents
themselves). Invaluable for understanding how the English language has
been used by ordinary people throughout history, and for finding
perspectives on a variety of historical topics from the people who lived
them. Indexed items include transcriptions of oral histories (both
text and audio), diaries, personal correspondence, and more. Search
functions are available for finding collections (including searching by
the time period covered in the collection, location, and subject search)
as well as specific documents (including personal information about the
speaker, date of interview, and topics discussed.)
Literature Resource Center - The
Literature Resource Center (LRC) is an affiliate of Gale Cengage Learning,
designed to be “a literary glossary for looking up literature terms” (SJSU
LibGuides). However, it is so much more than a glossary – users can research
biographies, multimedia, reviews/news, literature criticism, primary
sources/literary works, and topic/work overviews within the LRC. There are
several different search options for the LRC: Basic, Advanced, Person, and
Works Searches as well as access to the Gale Literary Index. However, Advanced
Search mode encompasses the Basic, Person, and Works Searches and allows for
the user to limit the search to content type to fit their needs.
MLA Bibliography - The
Modern Language Association (or MLA) is considered the premier
association for scholars of literature. Similarly the MLA Bibliography
is considered the premier database for researchers in literature. The
database indexes websites, dictionaries, handbooks, bibliographies,
working papers, conference papers and proceedings, 4,400 journals, and
books from 4,000 publishers annually. The MLA Bibliography includes
entries from 1926 to the present (though in partnership with JSTOR,
researchers can find many journals starting at their first issue).
Topics covered include literature from around the world, folklore,
linguistics, literary theory, drama, and the history of printing.
Notably, works on classical Greek and Latin Literature are excluded.
Several vendors provide access to the MLA Bibliography. On our campus
it is available via EBSCOHost, but if you access the database from
another library be aware that some search options may not be available
and the interface may differ.
Oxford English Dictionary Online - widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words. Includes over 3 million quotations from classic literature and other resources to convey the meaning of the words in context.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times(1851-2008) - ProQuest
Historical Newspapers is a member of the ProQuest resources family, providing
newspaper articles found in the New York times as far back as 1851. A Basic
Search bar is offered but the Advanced Search mode allows the user to choose a
date range, document type, and to sort results by relevance, oldest first, and
most recent first. A researcher can also search certain subject areas (i.e., Literature
and Language, the Arts, History, etc). A researcher can also search for
specific obituaries or publications from the New York Times. Overall, the
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2008) can be an
excellent resource for primary sources.
Underground and Independent Comics - Long considered unworthy of academic attention, graphic novels and comic books are something of an emerging field of study for literature scholars. Billed as the first scholarly online collection for
scholars of graphic novels and comics, the Underground and Independent Comics database claims to have 75,000 pages of primary materials. It includes several full text issues of
important underground comics such as the Hernandez’ brothers Love and Rockets, Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor, and Dave Sim’s Cerberus. In addition to its collection of primary sources, the
database also collects articles from several secondary sources as the journals Cascade
Comix Monthly, Comics Code, and The Comics Journal. It is a wonderful place to begin browsing some of the most important underground comix.