Research by Subject: English
ENCYCLOPEDIAS, HANDBOOKS, DICTIONARIES
Dictionary of Old English Corpus 
Full text database of 3,047 Old English texts.
OED Online (Oxford English Dictionary)
Full text of the 20 volumes of the OED, the 3 volume Additions Series, as well as at least 1,000 new and revised entries added quarterly. The OED is the leading authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millenium, providing information on the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words.
Dictionary of National Biography
Call Number: REF DA28 .D4
The monumental multi-volume work with biographies of English men and women from "the earliest times to 1900," with supplements through 1990.
LIBRARY CATALOG - BOOKS & MORE
HELIN Library Catalog
Find and request material at Wheaton and HELIN:
World Library Catalog 
Find and request material at Wheaton, HELIN, Brown, Google Books, and WorldCat (libraries worldwide):
MLA International Bibliography
Indexes critical scholarship on literature, language, linguistics and folklore, including journal articles, series, monographs, dissertations, bibliographies, and proceedings; via ProQuest; 1926 - present.
LION (Literature Online)
A collection of indexes, bibliographies, and full text literary and reference databases. Primary texts include English and American poetry, English fiction, and English and American drama, ranging from 600 to the early 20th century. Secondary sources include MLA International Bibliography, LIFT (a literary journal index with some full text), ABELL (the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature), the King James Bible, biographical information for over 1,000 of the most studied authors, and over 320 full text literary journals.
Literature Resource Center
Biographical information, overviews, full text literary criticism and reviews on nearly 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world. Includes the Gale series Contemporary Authors and the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Literature Criticism Online
Includes criticism on authors and literary works from 3 Gale series: Contemporary Literary Criticism (writers now living or who died after December 31, 1999), Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (writers from 1900 to 1999), and Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism (writers who died between 1800 and 1899).
JSTOR
Full text backfiles of over 1,200 core scholarly journals in humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Includes over 60 current titles, including all University of Chicago Press journals. For all other titles, JSTOR does not contain the most recent 1-7 years of content. Many of these titles are continued in Project Muse or in the Library's print and/or electronic subscriptions. Use the yellow arrow, then the ArticleLinker button to link to content on an external site or check Journal Finder for complete holdings information.
Project Muse
Full text collection of over 500 scholarly journals from the Johns Hopkins University Press and other university presses. Earlier years may be in JSTOR. Check Journal Finder for complete holdings information.
Poetry Criticism
Call Number: REF PN1021.P64
Multi-volume work, includes excerpts from critical essays, from earliest to recent, organized by poet.
Academic OneFile
Indexes and abstracts articles on subjects such as agriculture, anthropology, arts, business, communications, economics, law, political science, psychology, religion, general sciences, and current events. Includes many full text articles or links to full text; via InfoTrac; 1980 - present. Access provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
note: use VPN for off-campus access
Art Index Retrospective (H.W. Wilson)
Indexes material in the fields of art, art history, architecture, design, and film. Includes citations for journal articles, yearbooks, museum bulletins, and reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed journals; 1929 - 1984. For coverage of art literature from 1984 to the present, search Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson).
Film Literature Index 
Indexes journal articles about film, television and video, including reviews and book reviews; online coverage is 1976-2001, use print index for 2002-2004.
Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
Indexes journals in the disciplines of archaeology and classical studies, art, folklore, history, language and literature, literary criticism, music and performing arts, philosophy, and religion; includes over 310 full text journals; 1984 - present.
Sociological Abstracts
Indexes journals, dissertations, conference papers, and selected books in sociology and related disciplines. A ProQuest database; 1952 - present.
World Shakespeare Bibliography Online
Annotated entries for all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, AV materials, electronic media, and other materials related to Shakespeare published between 1961 - 2009. International coverage (118+ languages).
Shakespeare Survey
A yearbook of Shakepeare studies and productions. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies, and of the year's major British performances. Includes images and production photographs.
Book Review Digest Plus (H.W. Wilson)
Indexes reviews of current fiction and non-fiction, and provides review excerpts and over 100,000 full text reviews. Use Book Review Digest Retrospective for pre-1983 coverage, or search the 2 databases together; 1983 - present.
Book Review Digest Retrospective (H.W. Wilson)
Indexes reviews of adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction. For works published after 1982, use Book Review Digest Plus, or search the 2 databases together; 1905 - 1982.
New York Review of Books
Essays and reviews of books and the arts, including music, theater, dance, and film. Browseable by year or author; searchable by year, reviewed work, author or contributor. 1963 - present.
The Times Literary Supplement (TLS) Historical Archive 1902-2006
Includes the original image of more than 300,000 reviews, letters, and poems. Fully searchable, and browseable by date, book title, author, contributor, illustrator, editor or translator.
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY - ARTICLE INDEXES
Ethnic NewsWatch
Full text database of articles from newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press; 1990 - present.
Gender Studies Database
Indexes gender-engaged scholarship from professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses & dissertations and other sources. 1972 - present.
Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Indexes scholarly journal articles on the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400 - 1700 A.D.).
Scopus
Indexes and abstracts scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature and web resources. Includes citation tracking and links to full text articles. Early 1900's - present for some abstracts; 1996 - present for citation tracking.
Poetry Foundation
A useful source of poems, organized by category (subject), occasion, title or first line, plus criticism, news and biographies. Start with "Poetry Tool" to find a poem using any of the above categories. Searching by poet allows one to select geographic region, school, period, and more.
Women Writers Online
Full text collection of pre-Victorian (1400-1850) literature by women. From Brown University.
HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS & PERIODICALS
American Periodicals Series Online
APS Online features over 1,500 periodicals ... from colonial times to the advent of American involvement in World War II. Titles range from America's first scientific journal, Medical Repository, to popular magazines like Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal.
New York Times on the Web - historical file
Historical (1851-2007) file includes indexing and full text articles and full page images. Full text is not available for any articles affected by the Supreme Court ruling on the Tasini case (freelance writers and copyright).
The Times (London) Digital Archive
Indexing and full-image of every page published by The Times (London) from 1785 - 1985. For current indexing, use Academic OneFile or LexisNexis Academic.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Medieval Studies
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a specific subject area. Includes guides to introductory works, textbooks, guidebooks, journals, reference works, etc., and links to useful websites. Contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Renaissance and Reformation
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a specific subject area. Includes guides to introductory works, textbooks, guidebooks, journals, reference works, etc., and links to useful websites. Contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
CITATION GUIDES & STYLE MANUALS
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed.
Call Number: On Reserve & At the Information Desk
Authoritative guide to writing papers, and citing sources. Primarily focused on the humanities.
Online Writing Lab at Purdue - MLA Formatting and Style Guide
From Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL). Highly recommended.
