English 400: Senior Seminar / Professor Hale (Spring 2007)

Beginning your Research

The information below will help you gather information and conduct research for your English 400 Senior Seminar. The resources listed below will be of assistance when you prepare your presentation and begin to write your senior thesis. Resources will help you locate information on biographical context, cultural and historical context, literary criticisms, and scholarly research.

Call numbers

Browsing the shelves is a simple, powerful method for finding materials on your topic. You can quickly evaluate the scope of a book by checking its table of contents, index and bibliography for information about a specific author or subject. Depending upon your exact focus, you will want to browse different areas of the Circulating Collection (located on the Upper Level). A few good places to start include:

To see a brief outline of the entire Library of Congress classification system, take a look at it online. The sections below have been highlighted for you. Remember that these call numbers are in effect throughout the Library: whether you are looking for a book to check out, an encyclopedia to leaf through, or a video to watch.

Reference resources in Hewes Library

Take advantage of the dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference materials that are designed to explain a topic from the foundation up. You will find the resources below, among others, in the Reference Collection on the Main Level.

• Encyclopedia of folklore and literature REF PN 41. E48 1998
• Encyclopedia of the novel (2 vol) REF PN 41. E487 1998
• Dictionary of concepts in literary criticism and theory (2 vol) REF PN 41. H36 1992
• Dictionary of literary terms REF PN 44.5 S46
• Literature and its times (5 vol) REF PN 50. L574 1997
• World literature and its times (5 vol) REF PN 50. M625. 1999
• Encyclopedia of literary critics and criticism (2 vol) REF PN 75. E53 E53 1999
• Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism REF PN 761. N5
• Poetry Criticism REF PN 1010. P499
• The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics REF PN 1021. N39 1993
• Encyclopedia of the essay REF PN 4500. E63 1997
• The Oxford companion to English literature (5th ed) REF PR 19. D73 1985
• Library research guide (3d ed) REF PR 83. H34 1998

Online resources

Print indexes

Even with online databases dripping from every discipline, the older print indexes are still worth investigating: they often extend coverage far beyond online coverage, and may provide abstracts where current online products offer only citations. For example, Book Review Digest contains compilations of book review by year. They can be found on the Main Level, in the Reference section and all have blue labels on their spines.

• Book review digest, Years 1905 - 1996 INDEX Z 1219.C95
• Book review index, Years 1965 - 2002 INDEX Z 1035.A1 B6
• Essay & general literature index, Years 1900 - 2004 INDEX AI 3.E752
• Granger's index to poetry, Years 1918 - 1994 INDEX PN 1022.G7
• Humanities index, Years 1974 - 1996 INDEX AI 3.H85
• MLA bibliography / international bibliography, Years 1969 - 1994 INDEX Z 7006.M64

Using the WWW

There is no shortage of websites out there on the World Wide Web. As with any topic, you need to evaluate the information that you find on these websites. For some assistance in this endeavor, check out our website evaluation guidelines.

When evaluating a website's reliability, the big question is, "Who made this website? Who is responsible?" The answer to this question tells you a lot about the information you will find there. Be wary of opinions, points of view, and biases in the material available.

Human resources: your local librarians

Hopefully, the ideas and resources above will help you to get started in your research. If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to contact a librarian at the Reference Desk, (309) 457-2301.