Pfeiffer Library: English and Literature: Search Options

Find Library Materials

Are you looking for a specific database? Try our A to Z list.

Library Databases

These library provided databases are your best bets! Again, make sure you know your university credentials to utilize these resources off-campus.

Literary Reference Center Plus This link opens in a new window
Information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and time frames.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Index to books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics.
American & English Literature This link opens in a new window
Full text of books and other sources of poetry, drama and prose originally in print. Also includes 21 historic editions of the Bible in English.
Unlimited seats
Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new window
Citations and full-text articles covering all areas of the humanities.
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window
Index, abstracts, and full text for journals, books and other resources in the humanities.
ACLS Humanities E-Book This link opens in a new window
A collection of scholarly books in many areas of the humanities.
Unlimited seats
Essay & General Literature Index This link opens in a new window
Citations for humanities and social science articles contained in collections of essays and miscellaneous works published in the United States, Great Britain and Canada.

Web Resources

These free web resources may also prove useful.

British Library Digital Collection
The British Library website contains comprehensive information about the Library, the scope of its collections, and how to use its services. There is also a range of catalogues and digital content.
BBC Interviews with Modern Writers
This collection of interviews with some of the 20th Century's most read authors reveals something of those imaginations and the personalities which lie behind some of the greatest modern novels.
Walt Whitman Archive
Endeavors to make Whitman's vast work freely and conveniently accessible to scholars, students, and general readers. Whitman, America's most influential poet and a writer of global renown, is the most challenging of all American authors in terms of the textual difficulties his work presents.
Folger Shakespeare Library
Home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art, the Folger serves a wide audience of scholars, visitors, teachers, students, families, and theater- and concert-goers.
Mark Twain Project Online
Applies innovative technology to more than four decades' worth of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project.
Victorian Women Writers Project (VWWP)
Represents an array of genres - poetry, novels, children's books, political pamphlets, religious tracts, histories, and more.
Dickinson Electronic Archive
Features new critical and theoretical work about Emily Dickinson's writings, biography, reception, and influence.
Poets.org
Provides information for and about poets.
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples
This glossary came from the late Ross Scaife, who encountered it during his graduate studies at the University of Texas. Chris Renaud gave it to him, stating that it originated with Ernest Ament of Wayne State University. Ross, in turn, added some additional examples.
Perspectives in American Literature (PAL)
A continually updated online book/webpage.
Voice of the Shuttle (VoS)
Emphasizes both primary and secondary (or theoretical) resources, and defines its audience as people who have something to learn from a higher-education, professional approach to the humanities.
Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net (RaVoN)
Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net (RaVoN) is an International Refereed Electronic Journal devoted to British Nineteenth-Century Literature. The journal, which began publication as Romanticism on the Net in February 1996, is published four times a year. It expanded its scope in August 2007 to include Victorian literature.
Romantic Circles Scholarly Resources
The Romantic Circles Scholarly Resources is a collected set of online research tools approved by the General Editors of the site, intended for the study of the Romantics, their contemporaries, and their cultural contexts. You may scroll down to see the contents, or choose from the following menu: Chronologies | Indexes & Concordances | Bibliographies | Miscellaneous | Related Web Sites

Potential Keywords

Sometimes finding the right keywords can be a struggle. Here is a list of a few ways your can start your search.

Author's last name (Examples: Twain, Dickinson, Rowling)
Major Themes (Examples: Humility, Love, Death, Friendship)
Societal elements (Examples: Women, LGBT, Slavery)

Want to know more about doing research? Try this!

Research at Pfeiffer Library
Learn more about how to find, use, and evaluate sources at Pfeiffer Library.