About Us
- Outline of the Dewey Decimal Classification for Literature.
- Literary Theory, Concepts, and Terms A selective list:
- Biographical Sources in Literature A selective list:
- Literary Criticism A selective list:
- Poetry and Poetry Criticism A selective list:
- Short Stories and Short Story Criticism A selective list:
- Drama and Drama Criticism A selective list:
- Electronic Resources in Literature
Outline of the Dewey Decimal Classification for Literature.
Use these call numbers to browse the shelves in the Nonfiction and Reference Collections. Each 10's class may be broken down further, as in the 820's below. The highlighted description may, in general, be applied to the 810 and 830-890 classes.| 810 | American Literature in English | |
| 820 | English & Old English Literatures | |
| 821......English poetry | ||
| 821.1....Pre-1400 | ||
| 821.2....1400-1558 | ||
| 821.3....Elizabethan | ||
| 821.4....1625-1702 | ||
| 821.5....1702-1745 | ||
| 821.6....1745-1800 | ||
| 821.7....1800-1837 | ||
| 821.8....Victorian | ||
| 821.9....20th century | ||
| 821.912..1900-1945 | ||
| 821.914..1945- | ||
| 822......English drama, subdivided as above, but note:- | ||
| 822.33...Shakespeare: criticism, etc. | ||
| 822.333..Shakespeare: texts | ||
| 823......English fiction, subdivided as above | ||
| 824......English essays | ||
| 825......English speeches | ||
| 826......English letters | ||
| 827......English satire and humor | ||
| 828......English miscellaneous writings | ||
| 829......Old English literature | ||
| 830 | Literatures of Germanic Languages | |
| 840 | Literatures of Romance Languages | |
| 850 | Italian, Romanian, Phaeto-Romanic | |
| 860 | Spanish & Portuguese Literatures | |
| 870 | Italic Literatures Latin | |
| 880 | Hellenic Literature Classical Greek | |
| 890 | Literatures of Other Languages |
Literary Theory, Concepts, and Terms A selective list:
- Allusions : Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical : a Thematic Dictionary — REF 081 Al58 1982
- Characters in Nineteenth-Century Literature — REF 809.92709034 H839xc 1993
- Classic Love and Romance Literature : an Encyclopedia of Works,
- Characters, Authors and Themes — REF 809.933543 B725c 1999
- Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory — REF 801.9503 H244xd 1992
- Dictionary of Literary Terms — REF 803 G793xd 1992
- Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs — REF 809.9330321 D561l 1988
- The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism — REF 016.809 J622xh 1994
- Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary — REF 809.91090403 T9184cl 2000
Biographical Sources in Literature A selective list:
- A to Z of American Women Writers — REF 810.99287 K8451a 2000
- African American Writers — REF 810.9896 Af83s 2001
- American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies — REF 810.9 Am35
- Ancient Writers: Greece and Rome — REF 880.9 An22 1982
- Contemporary Authors — REF 810.90052 C767p
- Dictionary of Literary Biography — REF 809 D561
- Encyclopedia of World Literature in the Twentieth Century — REF 803 En19w
- Gay and Lesbian Literature — REF 809.93353 G251 1994
- Latin American Writers — REF 860.998 L349so 1989
- Southern Writers: A Biographical Dictionary — REF 810.9 So88 1979
Literary Criticism A selective list:
A very useful series of books published by the Gale Group are available in our library in book form and also within the Literature Resource Center database. The books, covering various time periods, contain biographical information on an author, a list of major works and excerpts from critical essays written about the author and works. The Gale sets are indexed using a unique set of codes. You may want to print the Gale Criticism Series one-page code list. Cumulative title indexes are available on slanted display shelves adjacent to the print series. Other Literature titles of interest:- The Critical temper; a survey of modern criticism on English and American literature from the beginnings to the twentieth century — REF 820.9 C869
- Moulton's library of literary criticism of English and American authors through the beginning of the twentieth century — REF 820.9 M862
Poetry and Poetry Criticism A selective list:
- American and British Poetry: A Guide to Criticism — REF 821.008 Al26am
- Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry - REF 808.81 G766ipa
- Critical Survey of Poetry — REF 809.1003 C8697sp
- Guide to American Poetry Explication — REF 809.130973 G941xt
- Masterplots II: Poetry Series — REF 809.1 M393
- Poetry Criticism: Excerpts From Criticism of the Works of the Most Significant and Widely Studied Poets of World Literature — REF 809.1005 P752
Short Stories and Short Story Criticism A selective list:
- Critical Survey of Short Fiction — REF 809.3203 C869
- Short Story Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Short Fiction Writers — REF 809.31 Sh81
- Short Story Index — REF 809.3 Sh81i
Drama and Drama Criticism A selective list:
- Critical Survey of Drama - REF 809.2 C869
- Drama Criticism - REF 809.2005 D79xc
- Dramatic criticism index; a bibliography of commentaries on playwrights from Ibsen to the avant-garde — REF 809.2016 D79
Electronic Resources in Literature
Boreham Library Online Catalog
- Bibliography Designates works by or about that author
- Criticism and Interpretation Designates books devoted to criticism of that author.
Use Library of Congress Subject Headings to locate resources by a standard vocabulary. Examples of LC Subject Headings:
| Chinese Literature | Heroes in Literature |
| English Literature — 19th Century | Literature, Medieval |
| European Literature — Renaissance, 1450-1600 | Russian Poetry |
Research Databases in Literature
- Is the document a book or a journal article? This information is usually available within the citation.
- Books - Check the Boreham Library Online Catalog to see whether we own the book.
- If not, consider borrowing the book from another library through Interlibrary Loan.
- Click on the Interlibrary Loan option following the citation.
- Allow 10-14 days for delivery and each item costs $1 processing fee.
- Journal Articles - Click on the Find Full Text option following the citation to determine if full-text is available from another database.
If not, consider requesting a photocopy of the article from another library through Interlibrary Loan.
- Click on the Interlibrary Loan option following the citation. Some databases fill in the ILL form automatically; some take you to the Boreham Library ILL form and you must type the item information yourself.
- Allow 7 days for delivery and each item costs $1 processing fee.
- Books - Check the Boreham Library Online Catalog to see whether we own the book.
JSTOR
JSTOR is an initiative, sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to store the full-text of important scholarly journals from the earliest volumes in a secure environment. Issues for the current 3-5 years are not available as publishers rely on revenues from the print subscriptions to help fund online content. Literature Resource Center (LRC)
The LRC provides information on more than 120,000 literary figures from all time periods and all literary genres from the Gale Criticism Series. Also included are more than 415,000 full-text journal articles from more than 250 literary journals, nearly 44,000 critical essays and 5,000 overviews. Use the following Search Tips to learn techniques to construct more efficient searches.
| The Boreham Library provides single-user access to this important full-text database. If you are denied access, please try back later. Please close the database as soon as you are finished to allow others in your class access. |
MLA International Bibliography
Indexes articles from more than 4,400 journals, books from over 1,000 publishers and dissertations. Indexing from 1963 to present with subjects covering literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, and much more. Some full text is available from links to other databases available through our library.
Oxford English Dictionary Online
The most authoritative source of information on word meanings in English. The OED displays in a historically ordered form the changes of the meanings of all the non-technical vocabulary from early Middle English to the present day. The 20-volume print edition is also available: Call # REF 423 Ox2e 1989. Project Muse
The Arts and Humanities Package of Project Muse provides the full-text of 162 scholarly journals. Subjects include literature, history, theory, languages, and philosophy. Browse a list of titles grouped by subject area. World Catalog
This immense database of over 52 million records represents items published from before 1000 BC to the present and available in libraries worldwide.
Literature Web Sites
http://www.infomotions.com/alex/ ANTHOLOGY OF MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE (1350-1485)
http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/ BARTLEBY.COM
http://www.bartleby.com/Subjects/ BRITISH & IRISH AUTHORS ON THE WEB
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/UK-authors.html BRITISH WOMEN ROMANTIC POETS, 1789-1832: AN ELECTRONIC COLLECTION OF TEXTS
http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/English/BWRP/ CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH & AMERICAN LITERATURE
http://www.bartleby.com/cambridge/ CANADIAN LITERATURE ARCHIVE
http://www.umanitoba.ca/canlit/ CELT: ONLINE RESOURCE FOR IRISH HISTORY, LITERATURE AND POLITICS
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/ EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RESOURCES
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/18th/ ENGLISH LITERATURE: EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (1603-1660)
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/ INTERNET CLASSICS ARCHIVES
http://classics.mit.edu/ IPL: ONLINE LITERARY CRITICISM ONLINE
http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit/ THE LABYRINTH
http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu LATIN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
http://library.csbsju.edu/rqs.phtml?subject_id=20 LEGENDA: EUROPEAN LITERATURE
http://www.ehrc.ox.ac.uk/legenda/enlight.html LITERARY RESOURCES ON THE NET (JACK LYNCH)
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/ LUMINARIUM
http://www.luminarium.org/lumina.htm PERSEUS DIGITAL LIBRARY
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ PROJECT GUTENBERG
http://gutenberg.net/ PULITZER PRIZES.COM
http://www.pulitzer.org/ SIXTEENTH CENTURY RENAISSANCE ENGLISH LITERATURE (1845-1603)
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/ CLA: SPANISH LITERATURE
http://www.virginia.edu/cla/split.htm
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