Research Guides: *English: Getting Started in English

Humanities Librarian

she/her

Contact:

Ladd Library 131
(207) 786-8323
mwillia8@bates.edu

I am usually at the Research Desk Mon. 6-9, Tues. 1-4, and Wed. 10-1

Subjects: Art and Visual Culture, Classical and Medieval Studies, English, European Studies, French, Gender and Sexuality Studies, German, Greek (Ancient), Hispanic Studies, Languages and Literatures, Latin American and Latinx Studies, Russian

New Books in English

Reference Materials in English

Reference Materials, such as encyclopedia entries, dictionaries, and bibliographies will give you an overview of a topic, definition of a word, author, or time period. These resources have been designed for research in both English language and literature:

Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The OED is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history and pronunciation of over half a million words, from across the English-speaking world.
The online Oxford English Dictionary contains the complete A to Z sequence of the Second Edition, its three-volume Additions Series, and draft material produced in the progress towards the Third Edition. The OED is an historical dictionary of English. It aims to show not only the current meanings of words, but also to trace their development through time. Entries contain detailed etymological analysis and are illustrated by quotations from a wide range of English language sources from around the world. Revised and new entries will be added to the online Dictionary every quarter. The full text, definitions, etymologies, and quotations are all searchable.
Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
DLB Complete Online includes the DLB main series, the DLB Documentary Series, and the DLB Yearbook Series.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographies of the men and women who shaped British history; includes illustrations Publication dates: Antiquity to 2003
Limited to one user at a time
Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
Topical bibliographies in the humanities and social sciences. Oxford Bibliography
Oxford Bibliographies offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. There are at least 50 specific topical bibliographies in each subject area. Each of these features an introduction to the topic. Bibliographies are browsable by subject area and are keyword searchable.

Research Resources in English

These are a list of the major databases containing peer-reviewed research in English literature that are excellent places to start researching authors, particular titles, poems, and all sorts of sources related to language and criticism.

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Modern literature, language, linguistics, and folklore journal articles and books. Citations with links to full text. Publication dates: 1926 to present
Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
Topical bibliographies in the humanities and social sciences. Oxford Bibliography
Oxford Bibliographies offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. There are at least 50 specific topical bibliographies in each subject area. Each of these features an introduction to the topic. Bibliographies are browsable by subject area and are keyword searchable.
Cambridge Core This link opens in a new window
Books and journals from Cambridge University Press, including Cambridge Companions and Cambridge Histories.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Full-text scholarly journals. Publication dates: mostly 1960 to present (some earlier)
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of literary authors.

Online Texts for use in English Literature Study

Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Early printed books, English literature, fine arts, history, religion, etc. (includes listings in STCI, STCII and Thomason Tracts). Publication dates: 1473-1700
Provides partially searchable digital images of books printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as works in English printed elsewhere. Based on the Pollard and Redgrave Short Title Catalogue (1475-1640), the Wing Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources related to history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science, etc. Publication dates: Eighteenth century
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources, including books and monographs, newspapers and periodicals, diaries and personal letters, manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, maps, and etc. Publication dates: 1780-1910
Includes Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange, British Politics and Society, British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture, Children's Literature and Childhood, Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest, European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection, Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature, Photography: The World through the Lens, Religion, Society, Spirituality, and Reform, Science, Technology, and Medicine: 1780-1925, and Women: Transnational Networks.
Short Story Index This link opens in a new window
Index to short stories written in or translated into English that have appeared in collections and selected magazines. Searchable by themes, settings, and genre. Publication dates: 1915-1983.

Middle English Text Series
The goal of the TEAMS Middle English text series is to make available to teachers and students texts which occupy an important place in the literary and cultural canon but which have not been readily available in student editions.
Lexicons of Early Modern English (LEME)
Lexicons of Early Modern English (LEME) is a historical database of monolingual, bilingual, and polyglot dictionaries, lexical encyclopedias, hard-word glossaries, spelling lists, and lexically-valuable treatises surviving in print or manuscript from the Tudor, Stuart, Caroline, Commonwealth, and Restoration periods.
REED Online
Database of surviving records of drama, secular music, and other popular entertainment in England from the Middle Ages until 1642, when the Puritans closed the London theaters.
Folger Digital Texts
Digital texts of Shakespeare's plays from the collections of the Folger Shakespeare Library, including scholarly commentary.
Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO)
Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO) is a project of the Folger Shakespeare Library to provide scholars and the general public with convenient web access to transcriptions, images, and metadata for manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

*English

Humanities Librarian

New Books in English

Chenneville : a novel of murder, loss, and vengeance

Act normal

Prickly Moses (Compilation)

The fears

Unreliable narrator : me, myself, and impostor syndrome

An incomplete encyclopedia of happiness and unhappiness : poems

The goodbye world poem

Tumbling for amateurs

The woman who climbed trees : a novel

Snow Road Station : a novel

The quickening : creation and community at the ends of the Earth

River sing me home

The wren, the wren : a novel

Age of vice

The country of the blind : a memoir at the end of sight

Wild dances : my queer and curious journey to Eurovision

At the hour between dog and wolf : a novel

Somebody's fool

Elsewhere: Short stories. Selections

Dykette : a novel

Goddess

Reference Materials in English

Research Resources in English

Online Texts for use in English Literature Study