GSU Library Research Guides: ENGL 1102 Harrison: Literature in Context: Finding Articles in Databases

Literature Databases - Best Bets

Our top recommendations for literature research in this assignment.

Bloom's Literature This link opens in a new window
Examine the lives and works of great writers, an archive of more than 46,000 characters, literary topics, themes, movements, and genres.
Literary Reference Source Plus This link opens in a new window
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Literary Reference Center is a full-text database that combines information from major respected reference works, books, and literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing.
Tip: For best results, use Boolean Operators AND, OR, and NOT to combine search terms.
Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Access biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of more 120,000 authors from every age and literary discipline.
Note: Overlaps with For Students Series.

More Literature Databases

Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
Brings together all of Gale's literary databases into one seamlessly cross-searchable research study environment. Formerly Gale Literary Sources
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Subjects consist of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, and the historical aspects of printing and publishing.
Tips: Connect search terms with "AND" and Limit results to "Linked Full Text"
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
All scholarly journals at least one year old as well as academic e-books. Great for literature or non-current topics.
Tip: Go to Advanced Search and click the "Language and Literature" box under "Narrow by Discipline." tutorial
ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new window
Provides support for the study of English literature by bringing together primary works, reference materials, and literary criticism. Content includes books and scholarly journals covering 600 AD to the present. Formerly: Literature Online (LION)
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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A multi-subject database, so enter your author's name and/or the title of the work as a search term, then click on "full text" and "scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals" to get your best results.
Academic Search is included in the DISCOVER search. So why would you want to search it separately? You can use advanced searching techniques to get better results.

Database Tutorials

If you need instructions on using a particular database, you may find a video tutorial produced by GSU librarians on this page. Tutorials Research Guide.

Pay particular attention to:

Primary and Secondary Sources in Literature

For Students in Gale Virtual Reference Library

Gale Literary Sources (formerly Artemis)

Discover for literary sources

Bloom's Literature

Other useful Databases

The search tools in this column are good sources for finding additional research about historical context or topics related to your work of literature.

Remember, while this guide highlights recommended databases, all databases are available from the library homepage, as shown in the image below.

Discover Tool

The DISCOVER tool allows you to search multiple databases and the library catalog all at once. (You can try it out in the search box above.)

Things you should know:

It does not include all GSU databases.
Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are optional
It automatically searches within the full text of articles, but not books.
It includes GIL-Find@GSU resources, including books and DVDs.
It does not give you the same limiters as searching individual databases.

Tips:

Use the Advanced Search Option to enter multiple search terms. For literature searches, use one for your author, one for the title if the work, and an extra for a theme keyword or simply the term criticism.
Limit the disciple, for example for literature, limit to to Literature and Writing.

Non-literature Databases

You may need information about a topic relevant to your piece of literature -- not necessarily from literature-related databases.

Multi-Subject Databases

ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
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A large collection of databases not included in Discover. Includes general and subject specific databases.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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Peer-reviewed journal articles, periodicals, ebooks and more.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
All scholarly journals at least one year old. Great for literature or non-current topics. tutorial

News & Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Full text of U.S. and international news sources. Includes coverage of several major U.S. and international newspapers such as The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The New York Times, and the Times of London.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Specialized reference sources on many topics. Good for an overview.

Find More Databases

Databases A -- Z
Filter by Subject or browse this list of all our databases.