Literature Resources

Databases

To access the electronic databases you can click on the hypertext link, or from the library homepage select Articles | Research Guides.

Academic Search Elite
Full text, indexes and abstracts are provided for 3,237 journals in the collection. This database offers information in nearly every area of academic study including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies and more. Dates Vary.

American Memory from the Library of Congress
American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

Biography Reference Bank
Biography Reference Bank contains biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present, along with thousands of images. It contains the full text of the articles from more than 100 volumes of biographical reference books published by H. W. Wilson, including all the articles from all volumes of Current Biography, the World Author Series, Nobel Prize Winners, World Artists, World Film Directors, American Reformers, and numerous biographical books on musicians and composers throughout history. Also included are thousands of biographies from other respected publishers, including Macmillan UK, Greenwood, Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press and Harvard University Press. More than 5,000 new biographies from American National Biography licensed from Oxford University Press have just been added. In addition to the full text biographies, Biography Reference Bank contains millions of magazine citations (many of which contain full-text) from all of the Wilson Indexing Databases, including all citations from Biography Index Database after 1984, as well as thousands of links to book review citations, including review excerpts and full text reviews from Book Review Digest Plus.

Book Index with Reviews
Book Index with Reviews (BIR) is a comprehensive database that provides information on over 3.8 million book titles in a wide range of formats, including large print, books on tape, etc. Fiction and non-fiction titles are included in the database, in all genres. BIR contains over 800,000 full text searchable reviews from the sources such as: Library Journal, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, CHOICE, and others. 1800-2020

Books in Print
It contains over 4 million records, and is updated weekly. It describes in-print, out-of-print, and forthcoming fiction and non-fiction books, audios, and videos from North American publishers and U.S. distributors and wholesalers. Includes over 680,000 full-text book reviews from these sources: Boston Book Review, BIOSIS, Booklist, Bookstore Journal, Choice, Doody's Reviews, ForeWord Reviews, Horn Book Guide, Horn Book Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Quill & Quire, Reference and Research Book News, SciTech Book News, School Library Journal, University Press Book News and VOYA. Dates vary.

Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and Dictionary of Literary Biography (Gale Literature Resource Center)
Contemporary Authors provides complete biographical and bibliographical information on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors. Contemporary Literary Criticism--Select collects more than 35,000 critical essays on contemporary authors, with biographical, critical, principal works, and further study information. Dictionary of Literary Biography provides nearly 10,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of influential literary figures from all eras and genres. Dates vary.

CQ Researcher
Explores a single current issue in the news in depth each week. Topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education and science and technology. There are 44 reports produced each year including four expanded reports. 1991-present

Humanities Full Text
A bibliographic database that cites articles from English-language periodicals, plus the full text of selected periodicals. Periodical coverage includes some of the best-known scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines. 1995-present.

LexisNexis Academic Universe
LexisNexis Academic provides full text news, business, medical and legal information. Access is available to over 5,600 publications. Includes most of the world's major English-language newspapers, (not the Chicago Tribune, however) such as The New York Times since June 1, 1980, and the Chronicle of Higher Education since September 1997. It also includes many non-English language newspaper titles, as well as journals and magazines such as The American Prospect, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, New Scientist, The New Yorker (beginning with 2000), Newsweek, Publishers Weekly, and Washington Quarterly. Also included are: U.S. news services, radio and television transcripts, federal and state case law, medical, legislative and industry news, annual reports from SEC and many other sources. Newspapers are updated several times daily, and wire services hourly. Dates vary.

MagillOnLiterature Plus
MagillOnLiterature Plus, produced by Salem Press, combines all the quality content of both MagillOnLiterature and MagillOnAuthors in a fully integrated and enhanced single database. This database is composed of approximately 35,000 critical analyses of individual works of literature, 6,500 biographical records, more than 1,000 images, and a glossary of 1,310 literary terms. MagillOnLiterature Plus contains editorially reviewed critical essays, brief plot summaries, extended character profiles, and detailed setting discussions covering works by more than 8,500 long and short fiction writers, poets, dramatists, essayists, and philosophers. The biographical essays reflect extended coverage of the 2,500 most studied authors and include up-to-date lists of each author's principal works and current secondary bibliographies. In addition, 395 comprehensive genre-driven overview essays provide details about important literary genres, time periods, and national literatures. This database includes: Masterplots (12 volumes), Masterplots II (61 volumes), Cyclopedia of World Authors (5 volumes), Cyclopedia of Literary Characters (5 volumes), Magill's Literary Annual 1990-2004 (28 volumes), Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature (4 volumes) and Magill Book Reviews. In addition, this database also includes Critical Surveys (53 volumes), Magill's Choice: Notable Poets (3 volumes), Magill's Choice: Shakespeare (1 volume), Magill's Choice: 100 Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction (2 volumes) and World Philosophers and Their Works (3 volumes). Dates vary.

Magill'sOnAuthors
Information on over 1,500 notable authors. Dates vary.

Magill's Literature Online
The definitive online source for editorially reviewed critical analyses and brief plot summaries of the most studied works in the history of literature. This database, which is compiled by Salem Press, contains all of Masterplots and Masterplots II, Cyclopedia of World Authors, Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, and Magill's Literary Annual. Dates vary.

MLA International Bibliography
Bibliographic references (with some full text links) to scholarly works, literature, linguistics and folklore in English, French, German, Italian and other languages on the topics of literature, literary theory and criticism, genres, linguistics and folklore. 1963-present.

Novelist
NoveList is an electronic readers' advisory resource that assists fiction readers in finding new authors and titles.

Opposing Viewpoints
This database is organized by topic and provides viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles. Use this database for "position", "for-or-against", "hot-topic", and/or "debate" style research papers. Researchers can choose from dozens of controversial issues listed from Abortion to Global Warming to Youth, or they can enter search terms to search by subject, keyword, or full-text. Dates vary.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
An illustrated collection of 50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond. The biographies—of artists, scientists, writers, industrialists, performers, explorers, criminals, and eccentrics as well as politicians, church leaders, and soldiers, mariners, doctors, and lawyers—are written by experts and provide up-to-date scholarship but are also concise and readable. There are over 50,000 biographical articles in the Oxford DNB, and 9,294 cross-reference entries. There are no entries for living persons. 4th century B.C. E. – present

Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary is a historical dictionary of English, covering the language from the earliest times to the present day. Dates vary.

Periodical Abstracts
Periodical Abstracts indexes more than 1,500 general and academic journals. It also contains records for transcripts of segments of more than 80 news and lifestyle-oriented TV and radio programs. Each record includes a bibliographic citation and a concise abstract. 1987-present

Short Story Index
It is a detailed index of more than 76,500 stories from more than 4,025 collections. Short Story Index is searchable by subject, author, date, title, keyword, and source alone or by any combination. Subjects include narrative technique or device, locale, theme, and genre for pinpoint accuracy. 1984-present

WilsonSelectPlus
WilsonSelectPlus is a collection of over 750,000 full-text articles drawn from over 1,600 magazines and journals. Articles extend from those published in 1994 to the present. The following subjects are indexed: Accounting, Advertising, Art, Auditing, Banking, Broadcasting, Computers, Economics, Education, Engineering, Environment, Finance, Foreign Investment, General Interest, General Science, Health Care, History, Human Resources, Insurance, International Trade, International Trends, Investment Analysis, Literature, Management, Marketing, Planning and Strategy, Public Administration, Real Estate, Taxation, Telecommunications, and Transportation. 1984-present

General Interest:
LearningExpress Library
LearningExpress Library provides a completely interactive online learning platform of practice tests and tutorial course series designed to help learners succeed on the academic or licensing tests they must pass. You'll get immediate scoring, complete answer explanations, and an individualized analysis of your results. You will need to establish your own username and password when you start using this product. This will allow you to return and review your practice exams. The following test preparation materials are available:
• BUSINESS WRITING SUCCESS SKILLS
• GRADUATE SCHOOL ENTRANCE EXAMS (GMAT, GRE, LSAT & MCAT)
• JOB & CAREER TEST PREPARATION
• JOB SEARCH AND SUCCESS SKILLS (Creating Resumes, Interviewing Tips)
• MATH SKILLS IMPROVEMENT
• READING SKILLS IMPROVEMENT
• RESUME AND INTERVIEWING SUCCESS SKILLS
• SKILLS IMPROVEMENT COURSES
• SKILLS IMPROVEMENT WITH SPANISH INSTRUCTIONS
• TEACHING (CBEST, PPST, PRAXIS)
• TECHNICAL AND CAREER COLLEGE SKILLS (Math, Reading, Writing)
• TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language)
• U.S. CITIZENSHIP

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Catalog Instructions

If you have any trouble accessing any of the resources mentioned on this site, please ask for help at the Reference or Circulation Desks.

Books, if they have been written on your topic, will give it an extensive treatment and may provide references for further reading. To find books written on your topic, use references from encyclopedia articles and look up the titles in the ILLINET Catalog.

Search for a topic:

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Support Sites

Dominican University Academic Resource Center

The ARC provides citation guidelines for MLA and APA styles, as well as a comprehensive grammar guide.
ONLINE! Citation Styles Index
Comprehensive guide to citing electronic resources including personal and professional websites, electronic books, articles from e-journals, e-magazines, or e-newspapers, scholarly publications, and government documents. Covers MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, and CBE.

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