Computer Resources
LIBRARIES AND UNION LISTS
1. Virgo: [Harner number]
Our own library holdings. You will find books, journal titles, manuscript titles, etc. Keyword searching from the "Advanced Search" button, allows the greatest flexibility for searching.
ON NETSCAPE or EXPLORER FROM LIBRARY HOME PAGE:
http://www.lib.virginia.edu or
2. WorldCat [OCLC FirstSearch] [225]
Over 36 million records from libraries around the world including UVA, This database is useful for bibliographic information on books, journals, manuscripts, videos, etc. [RLIN, below, is better for mss]. This is the first place to go to find out whether another library has a work. [In addition, many individual libraries around the world have web sites that you may reach through the “Internet Reference link” from the upper right of our Home Page.]
ON VIRGO'S "OTHER DATABASES." Choose "Reference Sources," then "Library Catalogs," and then WorldCat. You have two options: A Virgo version and a Web version. The database is the same, but the interface is different. There are advantages and disadvantages to each system. The first choice has more search options and has good help screens. The Virgo option allows easy ILL access and is simpler to use. Your choice. If your choice fails, try the other interface. If that fails, ask for help.
3. RLIN [230]
Smaller competitor to OCLC Worldcat [above]. Includes fewer, but additional libraries not found in WorldCat. Also better for manuscripts. Prefer WorldCat, using RLIN as a backup. Do not forget about the large green National Union Catalog volumes.
ON VIRGO'S "OTHER
DATABASES." Choose "Reference Sources," then "Library
Catalogs," and then RLIN
4a. Catalogs of individual libraries around the world: Libweb - Library WWW Servers
4b. Library
of Congress Catalog [260]: http://www.loc.gov/catalog/
4c. British
Library Catalog [250]: http://blpc.bl.uk/
4d.
Bibliotheque Nationale [255]: http://www.bnf.fr/
5. Archives USA (Web). [280]
A current directory of over 5,000 repositories and more than 120,000 collections of unpublished primary source material (manuscripts, papers, diaries, photographs, etc.), with holdings and contact information. Includes the entire National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections from 1959 to the present, as well as the Index to the National Inventory of Documentary Sources. Updated regularly.
ON VIRGO'S "OTHER DATABASES." Choose "Reference Sources," then "Library Catalogs," and then Archives USA
6. English Short Title Catalog (ESTC) [1377]
Very good cataloguing records for Eighteenth Century English works. Also serves as an index to many of the reels of the Eighteenth Century, Early English Books, 1475-1640 [1990], and Early English Books, 1640-1700 [1995], large microfilm sets whose individual reels are not always represented on Virgo.
ON Virgo's "OTHER DATABASES" options menu. Choose "Humanities" or "Alphabetical."
7. Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Facsimile images of books, pamphlets, prayer books, proclamations, almanacs, calendars and other rich primary sources in all subjects. Contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) [1990], Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) [1995], and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661). Searchable fields include Author, Title, Printer, Publication date, Type of illustration, and Library of Congress subject heading. Records are linked to the corresponding page images, downloadable in Adobe® PDF.
ON Virgo's "OTHER DATABASES" options menu. Choose "Humanities" or "Alphabetical."
BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND INDICES
8. MLA Bibliography [335]
Best online index to scholarly articles in the literature of modern languages. Journal articles and multi-author works are listed. [For book reviews see Infotrac, Arts and Humanities Search, and Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, all of which are on the Virgo "Other Databases" menu.]
ON VIRGO (FULL ACCESS MODE UNDER "OTHER DATABASES.") You may choose MLA on Virgo or MLA on the web. The database is the same, but the interface is different. There are advantages and disadvantages to each system. The Virgo option allows interlibrary loan from the screen, but is misleading in its author searches. The web version allows you more search options with fuller indexing. Use the “advanced search” option on the web version, which also allows you access to the MLA Directory of Periodicals. [615]
9. Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature. [340]
Indexes "monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world." Coverage from 1920 to 2000.
On http://www.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/English/english.html or from Virgo's "OTHER DATABASES"
10. Arts and Humanities Search. [365]
Not only a good index for articles and book reviews in the humanities, but also the place to discover who has been cited by others.
ON Virgo's "OTHER DATABASES" Alphabetical or Humanities list. From 1981 to the present prefer the "Web of Science" interface. For coverage from 1975-1994 use the stand alone CD-Rom available only in Alderman Library at present.
11. Dissertations Abstracts. [465]
Indexes dissertations from 1861 to the present. From 1980, includes some foreign dissertations as well. Abstracts are included from 1980 to the present.
ON Virgo's "OTHER DATABASE" options menu. Choose "Alphabetical." Virgo version is very useful for ILL. Web is much better for detailed searching. "Subject" refers to "Literature" or "History," etc. Use "keyword" in the abstract of the dissertation.
12. There are many other good bibliographical sources from Virgo's "OTHER DATABASES":
12a. Periodicals Contents Index, indexes journals from 1770-1991.
12.b JSTOR is a full-text database with such journals as Modern Language Notes and ELH.
12c. LEXIS/NEXIS has full text from newspapers, law reviews, financial publications, and news transcripts, some from 1990 to the present. This is a particularly good source for recent NY Times articles from 1980 on.
In other disciplines, many of Virgo's Other Databases may be useful for these exercises. For example, ATLA Religion Database, 1949- [6350], Philosopher's Index [6275], Historical Abstracts [6500], America History and Life [3310] and Art Abstracts, 1984- [5145], may be quite helpful. Wing Short Title Catalogue 1641-1700 [1995] has more records than the ESTC for that period, but has no access to the microfilm holdings.
The Library’s “Internet Reference” link at the upper right of the home page, www.lib,virginia.edu, has many good links to popular culture sites including the Movie Review Query Engine, www.mrqe.com, among others.
BIOGRAPHIES.
13a. Biographical and Genealogical Master Index [565]
13b. Biography Index [540]
13c. Biography Resource Center
13d. Contemporary Authors [595]
13e. Dictionary of Literary Biography [600]
Useful biographical sources. Contemporary Authors is especially good for quick biography and bibliography of writers flourishing since the late fifties. Dictionary of Literary Biography is a personal favorite.
ON VIRGO (FULL ACCESS MODE UNDER "OTHER DATABASES.") Go to "Reference Sources," then "Biographical."
QUOTATIONS, IMAGES, DICTIONARIES, FULL TEXT
14. Granger's World of Poetry. [1235]
An index of poetry in major anthologies. Some full text.
ON Virgo's "OTHER DATABASES" options menu. Choose "Humanities" or "Alphabetical."
15. There are several moderately useful dictionaries of quotations available from the Library’s Home Page.
Go to upper left hand “Quick Links,” click on “Internet Reference,” and then click
“Quotations.” These sites do not really replace the many good print quotation
books in the Reference Room.
17. For Images, there are several good links to photographs and artwork
from the Virgo OTHER DATABASES menu. Go to “Reference Sources”, then “Images.”
16. Oxford English Dictionary. [1410]
The historical dictionary of the English language. Quotations show first and typical usage of words.
ON Virgo's "OTHER DATABASES" options menu. Choose "Alphabetical." Second Edition has more search options than Third Edition.
OR DIRECTLY FROM ETEXT SITE: http://etext.virginia.edu/oed.html
17. Project Muse:
Full text of 100+ scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics, many from the Johns Hopkins University Press's. Mostly from the late 1990s, although some go earlier.
ON Virgo's "OTHER DATABASES" options menu. Choose Journal Articles, then "Full-Text Journal" or "Alphabetical."
18. Electronic Text Center:
Many full text sources. Here you will find Modern English Texts, The English Poetry Database, which includes all of the poets in the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature [1385] through 1900, Early American Fiction, the American Poetry Database, Shakespeare, Bibles, and countless other sources in English as well as in other languages. The site serves as an online concordance for many of the great works.
ON NETSCAPE FROM LIBRARY HOME PAGE OR GO TO ETEXT SITE:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu or
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/english.html
19. Middle English Compendium.
Wonderful site for Middle English texts, Middle English Dictionary, etc. Searchable.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/mec/ or from
Virgo OTHER DATABASES
20. University of Virginia Library's Scholarly English Resources.
A good subject guide to literature web sites. This site is maintained by Karen Marshall, Humanities Librarian and Liaison to the English Department.
ON NETSCAPE FROM LIBRARY HOME PAGE:
From "Research Resources," choose "Subject Guides, then "English." Or go to http://www.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/English/english.html
SEARCHING: a few tips:
Use unique ("interesting") words. Words such as "the", "that," "state," "organization," and other common words either will slow the processing dramatically or will act as "stop words" and not be recognized at all.
Use BOOLEAN logical connectors "and" and "or" to combine terms in your search. For example, "swift and pope" will find records that have both men in the record (a small number,) while "swift or pope" will find records that mention either of the two (a very large number.) Use NESTING (parentheses) to force the computer to process "or" before "and" when needed.
Learn the TRUNCATION symbol for your particular
database. Truncation lets you find something when you only know the beginning
of a word. For instance dosto$ will find Dostoevsky or Dostoevskii or
Dostoyevsky in Virgo. In other databases, dosto* or dosto? may do the same.
SOME FAVORITE WEB ADDRESSES:
Library Home Page:
Virgo Login:
MLA on Ovid or Virgo:
http://virgo.lib.virginia.edu(Choose "other databases", then "Humanities.")
Etext Center:
Scholarly English Resources:
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/English/english.html
Guide to ENCR 801
UVa Library: Subject Guides: English: encr801b
This guide:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~bec/encr801.html
English Department Home Page:
For any of the above resources or for any
research question, feel free to see or to e-mail Karen Marshall
[kmarshall@virginia.edu] or Bryson Clevenger [bec@virginia.edu].
Bryson Clevenger
Alderman Library Research and Information Services
243-8701
bec@virginia.edu
August 2003