Joseph Roberts
Introduction
Welcome to the ENG 601 student-created research guide. This guide will help you find library resources useful to graduate students researching various movements, periods, and literatures within English literature.
Each page in this guide - with the exception of this one - was created by a graduate student who was focused on that area while taking English 601, Research in English Studies at Ball State. Each page lists resources relevant to an area of study such as African American literature or British Modernists. The students cultivated these lists after consulting with faculty who are experts in these areas.
This general page was created by students taken the course in Fall 2021. It lists resources that are useful for students researching any aspect of literature.
Reference works
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new windowThe Oxford English Dictionary (commonly referred to as the OED) is a historical dictionary that tracks changes in the English language over time. The OED provides researchers the ability to trace the history, meaning, and pronunciation of thousands of words from over 1,000 years of the English language.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Bibliographies Online is a research tool that combines the helpfulness of an annotated bibliography and an encyclopedia, creating a guide that directs researchers to scholarship across an array of subjects.
- Gale eBooks This link opens in a new windowGale eBooks is a collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other types of reference works on a variety of subjects, including literature.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new windowThe Oxford Dictionary of National Biography contains information about Britons from a variety of fields, from popular to obscure. Are you looking for a specific author or publisher and coming up blank when you check the databases? The National Biography may have a page about them! Their bibliographies often lead back to our own library and can be a great basis for starting your own research.
Secondary sources: Finding and obtaining articles and books
These databases are recommended for general use and as places to start your research. They are considered to be reliable and reputable with a wide breadth of literary resources available via the access granted by Ball State University Libraries. Whether you want to cast your net as wide as possible or look in a more specialized direction, these databases have consistently proven useful to English graduate students in a variety of research areas and fields.
As a general tip, when searching for sources, be sure to check the bibliographies of the articles you are reading in order to see where these scholars are finding their own information about the topic and seek out those sources as well. Doing so can aid you in finding more potential research options AND will help you determine how the database you’re working with categorizes the information you’re looking for.
While some journals and sites in this guide offer purchase options, make sure to check with a librarian and explore your Interlibrary Loan options to avoid incurring any excess expenses on your part.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window MLA International Bibliography is an electronic version the print index published by the Modern Language Association beginning in the 1920's. Subjects include literature, language, folklore, linguistics, literary theory & criticism, and dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Contains some full text articles.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window JSTOR allows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines. It contains complete backfiles of scholarly journals starting with the first issues, many of which date back from the 1800s. Although the majority of titles do not have the most recent 3 to 5 years available in full text, there are some which have the current issues available. Note: Additional content has been permanently added to JSTOR, including archived journal collections and primary resources. Searches performed using the databases page link will include results from the additional sources, as will the link above.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window Full text database of journals in disciplines such as art, literature, history, political science, and economics. Some full text will come from the JSTOR database, in PDF format.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Good database for most research topics and contains lots of full text, peer reviewed articles. More than 18,000 of the journal titles indexed are peer reviewed and almost all of the full text is. Provides searchable cited references for more than 1,000 journal titles so you can easily see what sources a given article cites.
- OneSearch This link opens in a new windowThis is the library's one-stop shop for resources. Functioning much like the general databases, OneSearch offers an experience that is like searching University Libraries’ catalog, all of its databases, and a few other Ball State resources at the same time. If you only want things available through Ball State University Libraries, make sure to select “Library Catalog” as a search filter. Additionally, you can see if a book is available for borrowing, and either reserve it or request it if another person has already checked it out.
- WorldCat This link opens in a new windowWorldCat combines the holdings of thousands of libraries worldwide, including Ball State University Libraries. While it can help you discover books available at Ball State, you might find it most useful for finding books at other libraries that you can borrow and have shipped to you through interlibrary loan.
Interlibrary loan is a free service that allows you to access a network of libraries across the United States (and some outside it). If you want to get a copy of a book or article but can't find it through Ball State University Libraries or for free elsewhere online you can fill out the form provided here with the details of the source you need and put in a request to receive it from another library.
If it is a book you are looking for, it will be shipped to Bracken, and you can pick it up there. Loan times can vary but are typically two to four weeks, not including the time your source is in transit to BSU. If it is an article or book chapter, it will be delivered electronically, and you can download it. As a general rule, electronic copies of sources are delivered quicker than hard copies. If you find that you are unable to access a resource online, requesting the source through ILL is a great option. Be sure to check “Free Only” when you place your requests, unless you are willing to pay.
Interlibrary loan requests at Ball State are placed through an online system called ILLiad. Every Ball State student has an ILLiad account. If you have not set up your account, you will be prompted to complete a one-time registration the first time you log into the system.
You can log in through the link below.
Primary sources
- Archives and Special Collections at Ball State University LibrariesUniversity Libraries' Archives and Special Collections, located on the second floor of Bracken Library, holds a variety of primary source materials that are available for you to use in your research. This link allows you to explore what is available - including their physical materials - and how to make arrangements to use the collections.
- Digital Media Repository This link opens in a new windowThe Digital Media Repository contains digitalized reproductions of items in Archives and Special Collections as well as from partnered museums, libraries and other institutions. These items are available to use online.
- Hathi TrustHathi Trust is a digital library comprised of scanned texts, providing access to primary and secondary documents from a variety of time periods. It contains a combined collection of over 17 million items across many fields and disciplines.
- Internet ArchiveInternet Archive contains information in a variety of formats, including digitized physical materials. One of its more unique features, however, is its 25-year archive of internet sites and decades-long collection of other artifacts of digital culture, like vintage software.
- Chronicling America This link opens in a new windowNewspapers can be a vital primary source. For those studying American literature, Chronicling America by the Library of Congress contains a database of issues of newspapers published in every state for more than 100 years.
- New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowThe New York Times has long been a major source for news about America and the world. This database contains the entire run of the newspaper from 1851 to recent years.
Professional resources
- The University of Pennsylvania Department of English's call for papers websiteHere, you can find conferences to which you can submit your scholarly work as well as calls from editors seeking articles for special issues and collections.
- The Modern Language Association (MLA)The Modern Language Association is the flagship organization for language and literature studies. Their website provides researchers with research, job-hunting, and professional resources, as well as information on MLA citation style. The MLA also sponsors a prestigious conference and the journal PMLA, which is cataloged in the MLA International Bibliography database.
- MLA Directory of PeriodicalsNot to be confused with the MLA International Bibliography database, this directory helps you find journals in which to publish your scholarly work. It includes information such as length requirements, whether the work is peer reviewed, and acceptance rates.