ENGL 299: Library Research Workshop
Mackenzie Brooks
Assistant Professor & Digital Humanities Librarian
English Department Liaison // Leyburn 218
February 10, 2017
By the end of this session, you will...
- have experience with literature databases
- have a framework for evaluating sources
- be ready to start your research paper!
How do you research?
Research!?!
words of wisdom
1. Research is iterative.
2. Information overload = filter failure.
3. There is no perfect source. There is no perfect database.
4. Have fun!
RESEARCH WORKSHOP
-
Select a database:
- Search Everything
- MLA
- Google Scholar
- EEBO
- Gale Literary Sources
- WorldCat.org
RESEARCH WORKSHOP
- Who made this database?
- What's in it?
- What are the features?
- Search for "John Donne." What are the results?
- Select a result
- Can you find it in another database? How?
- Is it peer reviewed?
- What are the credentials of the author?
Search Everything
- a product the library pays for
- combines all our print + electronic collections
- can be overwhelming
- good for starting out + interdisciplinary research
MLA Bibliography
- Specific to languages and literature
- It's an index, so not all full text
- Search by publication title
Google Scholar
- Run by a corporation
- Content = mostly journal articles
- Updates quickly!
- Connected to library holdings
- Good for citation chasing... "Cited by 37"
Early English Books Online
- Pages images and full text (50%) of works in English from 1473–1700
- Search by variant spellings and forms
- Continues to be updated
- Based on Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement aka microfilm.
Gale Literary Sources
- Reference/encyclopedia content like biographies, overviews, reviews as well as criticism
- Search by "name of work" or "name of person" or peer-reviewed
- Topic Finder + Term Frequency
Worldcat.org
- All the books!
- 2 billion library holdings from across the world.
- An attempt to record all published books.
- We can interlibrary loan books from other libraries.