Literary Research Guide

Often, the best course of action is to begin with full-text databases. The articles you turn up by searching these databases are easily accessible in their entirety, and can be saved or emailed as necessary. The following services (and more besides) may be accessed through the Piedmont University Library website. (To reach this page on your own, select "Literature & Language" from the Browse by Subject drop-down menu under the Find Articles & More tab.)

Literary Journals and Information Resources

• Humanities Source ... A subset of the broader WilsonWeb database featuring full-text articles on a wide range of humanities and arts topics, including history. Be sure to check "Full Text" and "Peer-reviewed" to limit your results to scholarly, full-text journal articles contained in the service.
• LION - Literature Online ... Provides over 250 full-text literary journals and reference works for British and American poetry, drama and prose. Contains the complete texts of over 16,000 British and American literary works. Contains nearly 900 videos of poets reading their own works or the poetry of others, from all periods of English-language poetry. (See also: ABELL -- Annual Bibliography of English Language & Literature, which "aims to list annually all scholarly articles, books and reviews concerning English language and literature and related topics published anywhere in the world, and in any language.")
• Literary Reference Center (EBSCOHost) ... Combines information from major respected reference works, books, and over 300 literary journals. Also includes the full-texts of 25,000 classic and contemporary poems; 11,000 classic and contemporary short stories; and over 7,500 classic novels. (See also: MLA Bibliography, a searchable index to books and articles on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics, with links to some full text articles.)
• Literature & Language Journals in JSTOR ... This link opens the JSTOR Advanced Search page with all Literature & Language journals preselected for searching.
• Literature Reference Works at Credo Reference ... Search the interactive and illustrated content of dozens of literary reference books from some of the world's most respected reference publishers. Entries are enriched by a network of cross-reference links that cut across topics, titles, and publishers to provide accurate, relevant results. Credo Reference also contains dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, quotation collections, and atlases, all of which are essential tools for paper writers.
• Literature Reference Works at Oxford Reference Online ... Includes relevant content from dozens of full-text reference works published by the esteemed Oxford University Press.

Occasionally you will need to broaden or narrow your search to achieve desired results. For broader topics, try Academic Search Complete by EBSCOHost or ProQuest Research Library. These extensive databases are also useful for multi-disciplinary research. For searches tighter in focus, consider the resources offered in these targeted subject areas:

History / Classics

• Literary Studies at Cambridge Histories Online ... This online service contains all literature-related volumes currently published by Cambridge University Press as part of their distinguished and authoritative Histories series. Volumes can be searched and read individually, or you can search across several volumes or subject areas simultaneously.
• Classical Studies Journals in JSTOR ... This link opens the JSTOR Advanced Search page with all Classical Studies journals preselected for searching.
• Classical Studies Reference Works at Oxford Reference Online ... Includes relevant content from dozens of full-text reference works published by the esteemed Oxford University Press.

Mythology & Folklore

• Folklore Journals in JSTOR ... This link opens JSTOR with all Folklore journals preselected for searching.

Language Reference

• English Dictionaries & Thesauri at Credo Reference
• English Dictionaries & Thesauri at Oxford Reference Online
• Oxford English Dictionary ... Online version of the highly respected historical dictionary of the English language.

African American Studies

• African-American Studies Journals in JSTOR ... This link opens JSTOR with all African-American Studies journals preselected for searching.

Children's Literature

• Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) The CLCD service provides access to relevant information about PreK-12 media of all types, especially books. It includes over 300,000 reviews of children's books taken from respected publications written by and for professionals who work with PreK-12 children. This information may be used to select children's literature both for use in the classroom and for adding to library collections. Searching may be limited by awards received, genre, age-appropriateness, subject, and various reading metrics, including lexile ranges.

Many online services contain thousands of article citations for which the full-text is not provided. Click the Full Text Finder button when it appears to determine whether you have access to the full-text article through another service.

If you really need an article that's not available to you online, you can request it through Interlibrary Loan. Click on the link in the left-hand column to learn more.