Resource Guide to English
This guide provides a summary of the information resources (print, electronic and web-based) that are available through the Ivy Tech Libraries. It is not meant to be all-inclusive; there may be alternative resources available that are not listed here. Please ask a librarian for assistance if you do not find the information you need through this guide.

Articles or Periodicals You may find information in magazine and journal articles. Articles may be found in either print, electronic or online versions of periodicals to which the Ivy Tech Libraries subscribe.

In-print copies:
Current issues of magazines and journals held by the library may be found on display racks in the Periodicals section. Back issues for up to two years are shelved in another area. The entire collection may be useful for English class research projects, but the following focus on journalism and literature:

American Journalism Review

Poets & Writers

Electronic article databases:
To search electronic databases for articles, please use the Virtual Library homepage and click Find Articles, or just click a link below.

EBSCOhost: Academic Search Premier

Opposing Viewpoints

ProQuest

INSPIRE: LitFinder

Literary Reference Center -- more than articles; a well-rounded literature research tool

Access to specific magazines and journals online can be found using IvyJo. Lists of journals by subject can also be found in IvyJo; for example, click to see these lists under "Languages & Literature":

• Literature - General (256)
• English:
  • American Literature (36)
  • English Language (18)
  • English Literature (44)

Specific Online Journals

As an English student, you will often need to research scholarly journals to find secondary sources such as literary criticism. Here are some of the types of journals you may encounter as you research. The journals below can all be found through IvyJo and are available online.

Google Scholar results are now linking to library databases! This is new, so we don't recommend it as your first or only step in research -- but can be a useful tool to explore:

Google Scholar Guide (explains what this search tool is and how to use it to find
scholarly material on the Web, or locate articles cited in our library databases)

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Books

Use IvyCat (Ivy Tech) and WorldCat (other libraries) to search for print materials. (To see localized holdings or make interlibrary loan requests from WorldCat, choose your campus location: Anderson; Marion; Muncie)

IvyCat is the Ivy Tech Libraries' online catalog (for items owned by Ivy Tech libraries). You may perform a search in IvyCat using a set of keywords or subjects (or any of several other criteria if needed).

Shafer Library (Muncie) carries a print collection of a variety of fiction books as well as a small collection of literature anthologies that you may find useful. (Ask staff what is available in Anderson and Marion.) Books addressing literature topics are shelved in the P section.

Reference Books
Reference books typically provide basic information such as additional sources of information, biographical sketches and details, definitions or statistical information. Reference books do not circulate; they must be used in the library. The following (listed in shelf-browsing order) are available in the region's libraries as indicated ("A" for Anderson; "Ma" for Marion; "Mu" for Muncie):

Great Books of the Western World		Britannica series (A-Mu: shelved at beginning of Reference Collection)
MasterPlots (Magill, 12 vol.)		1,801 plot stories and critical evaluations of the world's finest literature (Mu: Ref PN44 .M33 1996)
Masterpieces of World Literature (Magill)		(A-Ma-Mu: Ref PN44 .M3448 1989)
Encyclopedia of Rhetoric		(A-Ma-Mu: Ref PN172 .E52 2001)
European Writers (3 vol.)		68 unabridged essays (A-Ma-Mu: Ref PN501 .E9 1992)
World Literature Criticism (Gale, 8 vol.)		Provides critical responses to a selection of major authors and works from 1500 to the present (A-Ma-Mu: Ref PN523 .W67 1992)
World Poets (Scribner, 3 vol.)		Articles on 107 poets from around the world, includes lists of works (A-Ma-Mu: Ref PN1021 .W67 2000)
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (16th ed.)		(A-Ma-Mu: Ref PN6081 .B27 1992)
The Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth Century Quotations		(A-Ma-Mu: Ref PN6080 .O955 1999)
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare		Encyclopedia volume with variety of information featuring extensive entries for each play (A-Ma-Mu: Ref PR2892 .O94 2001)
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature		(Mu: Ref PS153 .N5 O96 1997)
British Writers (3 vol.)		Provides biographical information and list of works for selected authors (includes critical commentary on major works) (A-Ma-Mu: Ref PR19 .B58 1997)
World Literature and Its Times: Profiles of Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them (4 vol.)		Provides contextual information for both fiction and non-fiction works. (A-Ma-Mu: Ref PR25 .M671 2001)
American Writers (3 vol.)		Provides biographical information and list of works for selected authors (includes critical commentary on major works) (A-Ma-Mu: Ref PS129 .A58 1998)
CDALB (Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography) (Gale, 6 vol.)		The six volumes cover these time periods: 1640-1865, 1865-1917, 1917-1929, 1929-1941, 1941-1968, and 1968-1988 (Mu: Ref PS225 .N42 1987)
Encyclopedia of American Poetry		(A-Ma-Mu: Ref PS323.5 .E53 2001)
Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story		(A-Ma-Mu: Ref PS374 .S5F33 2000)

For a selection of Reference available online, see Credo Reference under "Ebooks" below.

Don't forget: Literary Reference Center -- a well-rounded literature research tool

Ebooks are electronic texts from Ivy Tech's collection of full-text online books. Ebooks may be found in NetLibrary, eBrary, and ACLS Humanities Ebook Collection, all accessible from the Virtual Library homepage under Find Books and with QuickLinks in the right column. Many original works are available (too many to list, from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey to Kate Chopin), as well as literary criticism (what most of our sample links consist of). Several free ebook sites offer many relevant titles to students researching literature: Bartleby.com; Gutenberg Project; Online Books Page; These sites and more at IPL (Internet Public Library)

Credo Reference titles on Language:

Credo Reference titles on Literature:

Below are a few sample titles available from the ebook services mentioned above.

ACLS Humanities Ebooks:

The ages of man : a study in medieval writing and thought. J. A. Burrow.
Women writers of the Middle Ages : a critical study of texts from Perpetua (+203) to Marguerite Porete (+1310) Peter Dronke.

NetLibrary:

American Ethnic Writers (Magill's Choice), by David R. Peck and Tracy Irons-Georges.
Columbia Literary History of the United States, by Emory Elliott
Complete Idiot's Guide to American Literature, by Laurie Rozakis
Edgar Allan Poe Reader
Faulkner and His Contemporaries, by Joseph R. Urgo and Ann J. Abadie
Flannery O'Connor and the Mystery of Love, by Richard Giannone
Literature of the Romantic Period: A Bibliographical Guide, by Michael O'Neill
The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660-1769, by Michael Dobson
Modern Fantasy Writers (Writers of English), by Harold Bloom
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, by William L. Andrews, et al.
The Poetics of Disappointment: Wordsworth to Ashbery, by Laura Quinney
A Reader's Guide to Edwardian Literature, by Anthea Trodd
The Remarkable Case of Dorothy Sayers, by Catherine McGehee Kenney
Walt Whitman & the World, by Gay Wilson Allen
Series available, individual books by Harold Bloom: Bloom's Major Novelists; Bloom's Major Short Story Writers

African American Authors 1745-1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, by Emmanuel S. Nelson
Beginner's Guide to Critical Reading: An Anthology of Literary Texts, by Richard Jacobs
Beloved Harlem: A Literary Tribute to Black America's Most Famous Neighborhood, From the Classics to the Contemporary, by William H. Banks
Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture, by Jay Clayton
Doing English: Guide for Literature Students, by Robert Eaglestone
Hypocrisy and the Politics of Politeness: Manners and Morals from Locke to Austen, by Jenny Davidson
Literature, Technology and Magical Thinking, 1880-1920, by Pamela Thurschwell
Modernist Writing & Reactionary Politics, by Charles Ferrall
Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories, by Mark Twain
Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages, by Jeffrey J. Cohen
Reconstructing the Beats, by Jennie Skerl
Reimagining Indians: Native Americans Through Anglo Eyes, 1880-1940, by Sherry Lynn Smith
Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival, by Meredith M. Gadsby
Texts and Contexts: An Introduction to Literature and Language Study, by Adrian Beard
Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body, by Anna K. Silver
Where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog: On Writers and Writing, by Louis D., Rubin, Jr.

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Videos
The library has a growing collection of English/literature-related videos available for instructors to show in class. Students can view any of these videos in the library (DVD or VHS). Titles are searchable in IvyCat.

Websites
The following websites are not affiliated with Ivy Tech Community College, but are respected sites for the study of literature and writing.

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