Search For More
- Literary Databases
Need articles for your literary assignment, here's the place to go. - General DatabasesHaving a hard time finding what you need in the literary databases or need more general information, here's the place to go.
- How do I find more databases?
If the databases here aren't enough, don't worry! We have more! - How do I choose search terms?Not sure what to put in the search box in the database? Give this link a click.
Searching with an entire question or sentence like Google doesn’t work with a database. You will need to break up your search into main concepts, called keywords.
Spelling errors or typos will yield no results.
The databases look for the specific words you put into the search box and don’t have the same fancy algorithm as Google, so you may need to try multiple keywords and combinations before you find what you’re looking for.
The results at the top of the list aren’t necessarily the best. Scroll down and use the titles and abstracts to find the most relevant.
Databases label source types differently from one another and from the definitions in this module. Use your evaluative judgment on which type a source is rather than relying only on how the database categorizes it.
Databases have various interfaces and best ways to navigate them, which can be confusing. The instructions below outline some of those database specific quirks for each source type to make it easier.
Which literary databases do you recommend for English II?
- Gale Literature (formerly Artemis Literary Sources) This link opens in a new windowSubject(s): English. Best for: Assignments on literature or authors. Includes: Literary criticisms, topic and work overviews, and author biographies.
- Bloom's Literature This link opens in a new windowSubject(s): Literature. Best for: Researching literary works in context. Includes: topic centers, criticisms, movements, themes, poems, author profiles, timelines, videos, images .
- Literary Reference Center Plus (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowSubject(s): English. Best for: Assignments on literature or authors. Includes: Literary criticisms, topic and work overviews, and author biographies.
- eBooks (Gale) This link opens in a new windowSubject(s): Literature, humanities, medicine, and history. Best for: In-depth overviews of a topic and starting your research. Includes: Book chapters, reference essays, and literary criticisms on short stories, poems, plays, and novels.
- Biography (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new windowBest for: Assignments needing information on authors, scientists, politicians, artists, celebrities, historical figures, etc. Includes: Biographies, news, media, and some scholarly journals.
View a video tutorial or a printable handout on this database.
View a - What sources do I need?
Not sure which source type you need? Give this page a click. - How do I pick sources?
Faced with a long list of results? This page helps you evaluate the best sources for your assignment. - How can I chat with the library?Having trouble searching these databases? Librarians are here for you 24/7!
Which general databases do you recommend for English II?
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowSubject(s): All topics. Best for: Starting your research. Includes: scholarly journals, news, and magazines.
View a video tutorial or a printable handout on this database. - JSTOR This link opens in a new windowSubject(s): Humanitites, social sciences, and sciences. Includes: Scholarly journals, book chapters, and primary sources.
View a video tutorial or a printable handout on this database. - Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowGoogle Scholar is a freely accessible search engine for web-based academic literature, including journal articles, essays, and other documents.
- What sources do I need?Not sure which source type you need? Give this page a click.
- How do I pick sources?Faced with a long list of results? This page helps you evaluate the best sources for your assignment.
- How can I chat with the library?Having trouble searching these databases? Librarians are here for you 24/7!
Where/how do I search for books?
Get physical books from all over Florida or scroll down for recommended books:
Search a keyword(s) in Primo, the library search engine. Then select "Books" in the Resource Type drop-down menu.
Wild Unrest by Publication Date: 2010-11-18Wild Unrest adds immeasurably to our understanding of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, uncovering both the literary and personal sources behind "The Yellow Wall-Paper."
Kate Chopin by Publication Date: 2001-06-20Kate Chopin: A Literary Life sets the author in the context of nineteenth-century American women writers to show how standards of literary propriety affected the career of a major American writer.
- How do I pick sources?Faced with a long list of results? This page helps you evaluate the best sources for your assignment.
- How can I chat with the library?Having trouble searching for books? Librarians are here for you 24/7!
Where/how do I search for Ebooks?
Access nearly 50,000 ebooks or scroll down for recommendations:
Search a keyword(s) in Primo, the library search engine. Then select "Books" from the Resource Type drop-down menu, and select "available online" from the Availability drop-down menu.
The Wiley Guide to Writing Essays about Literature by Publication Date: 2013-10-07Practical guide to writing analytical essays on literature focusing on interpretive skills, focused exercises, and modeled examples.
Edgar Allan Poe by Publication Date: 2009-01-01Examine poems such as "The Raven," "The Haunted Palace," and "The City in the Sea," among others.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Publication Date: 2009-01-01This text rediscovers Coleridge, examining "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Frost at Midnight," "Christabel," "Dejection: An Ode," and "Kubla Khan."
Robert Frost by Publication Date: 2010
Where/how do I search for media or videos?
Where/how do I find credible web resources?
Find reputable web sources
Use Google Scholar to focus on info from experts:
How do I know where to look?
Pros:
- Sources already curated for academic work
- Fewer and more relevant results to look through
- Formal publishers have a vested interest in the quality and accuracy of the materials they publish
- Your assignment may require use of library sources
Cons:
- Requires knowledge of searching databases (hint: that's what librarians and this guide are here to help with ;)
The library catalog and databases seek to solve the same issue of overwhelming amounts of information as Google only in a way that is more conducive to research. Unlike Google, the library resources do not search the open web. A library database is an indexed, searchable collection of more formally published and curated sources including journals, magazines, trade journals, ebooks, ebook chapters, reports, and newspapers. Published materials have gone through some level of editing process before publication, peer-reviewed journals being the most rigorous, and they have a vested interest in the quality and accuracy of the materials they publish. With a library database, the publisher carefully selects a collection of resources suited to academic research and, therefore, a good portion of the sorting and evaluation is already done for you. Take a look at the difference between the number of results.
Google Results:
Library Database Results:
Pros:
- Sources chosen specifically to meet the needs of the subject of study
- Sources already curated for academic work
- Formal publishers have a vested interest in the quality and accuracy of the materials they publish
- Your assignment may require use of library sources
Cons:
- Requires knowledge of searching databases (hint: that's what librarians and this guide are here to help with ;)
Subject databases sort out the plethora of information even further. Subject databases are an indexed collection of published sources chosen specifically to meet the needs of a discipline area or subject of study. For example, the library has multiple databases dedicated to researching literature. These literary databases have carefully curated collections of the literary sources discussed earlier in this module. So, if you search for the terms “Yellow Wallpaper” in a literary database, you won’t get wallpaper sales sites, advertisements, or design blogs; you’ll get biographies, overviews, and literary criticism. So, if your instructor requires you to use the library databases, keep in mind they are trying to save you time, money, and mental energy.
Pros:
- Ease of searching
- Forgiving of spelling errors
Cons:
- Paywalls for academic information, such as books and journals
- Takes time to sift through overwhelming results
- Google makes biased assumptions based on your personal information
What exactly are internet sources or websites? When referring to internet sources, most instructors either mean sources found through a search engine, such as Google, or content found only on a website rather than in a more formal publication, such as a book, journal, or magazine. What most instructors are getting at is that they want you to use sources appropriate to your assignment. While it is possible to find credible sources using Google (some sources in this Research Guide were found using Google. Shhh… don’t tell anyone), it’s much harder to evaluate information from Google due to the massive number of results, the difficulty of determining the type of source you’re looking at, and the challenge of determining where the information is coming from.
According to Google, “With the amount of information available on the web, finding what you need would be nearly impossible without some help sorting through it.” Even Google acknowledges that people need help sifting through the mass of information available, which is why part of their service is to choose what comes up in your search results for you. Google and other search engines use a proprietary algorithm to search for and rank your results in their index. The keywords you choose and their synonyms (and common spelling errors) are part of that algorithm, but it’s also made up of a combination of assumptions based on your demographic information, search history, and location. These assumptions are hugely convenient when you’re searching for your favorite local pizza place or the most recent city news, but it’s not as helpful in a research context when you’re looking for published academic information.
Despite the common perception that all information is now freely available, many formal publications charge for access because the editorial process, information quality, and graphical layout have value. Though you can find some of the same sources using Google if you know how to look, you will often be required to pay to view them. Part of the library’s mission and budget is to provide access to these academic materials, so you can read them for free.
Pros:
- May have sources when you've searched the library and come up with nothing
- Forgiving of spelling errors
- Makes it easy to follow the scholarly conversation through citation links
Cons:
- Not all the information is available for free and there may be paywalls
- Difficult to search by subject or topic
- Stronger in some subject areas than others
- You will need more search skills than regular Google
While Google searches the open web, Google Scholar searches "articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites" (Google). In simple terms, Google Scholar is the Google of academic information. But before you're completely sold, there are some inconvenient caveats. Google Scholar is not as easy to search as Google, and it's difficult to search by topic or subject. Google Scholar only provides access to open resources and many sources run you into a paywall. Some subject areas tend to have more open access information, such as medical research, but there the areas that don't will be difficult to find using Google Scholar. Google Scholar makes a great Hail Mary when you can't find sources either because a work of literature is too new or specialized or because the library doesn't have access to a specific article you need.
How do I find more databases?
Each Database has many Articles:
- Peer-reviewed Articles
- Reference Encyclopedia Entries
- News Articles