Research

Books
If you have chosen to write about Young Adult novel and still need to find a companion text, [|here] is a wonderful link to a list of YA Dystopias.

Use the [|online catalog] to find books about your novel. First, determine the subject heading for your author by typing the author's name (last name, first name) into the search box and choosing **//Subject Headings//**. Next, do an Advanced Search: Type the author's subject heading in the first field and choose **//Search by Subject Words//**; in the next field type the title of your novel and choose “these words as a phrase” and **//Search by Any Words//**. This will pull up entire books of criticism on your novel and books containing at least one critical essay on your novel.

Popular review sources
If you search these databases from home, you will be prompted to supply your NetID and password.

The [|New York Times Book Review] has full-text coverage of book reviews published after 1985. Type the title of your book in the search box in the left toolbar.

For books published before 1985, try using [|Proquest's Historical New York Times]. Choose //News - Historical New York Times with Index// from the Database drop-down menu. In the first search box, type the title of your book within quotation marks (for example: "Brave New World"). In the second search box, type the last name of your author if the title of your book is not unique and may bring up irrelevant results. Finally, click on //More search options// at the bottom of the page, and choose //Review// in the Document type drop-down menu. Although not foolproof, following these steps should give you the most relevant search results.

For books published 1902-1990, you may also want to try the [|Times Literary Supplement]. After you have searched for your book, click on //Detail// next to the most relevant search result, and then click on //View Facsimile// at the top of the page to read the review.

Journal articles
If you search these databases from home, you will be prompted to supply your NetID and password.

The [|MLA (Modern Language Association) Bibliography] indexes literary criticism from 1963 to the present. Note that it is **not** a full-text resource. Once you find a promising citation, click on the link that will take you to a search in the [|online catalog] or to full text that might be available through another database. You can also try a search for the journal title in the [|Online Research Resources] page.

[|JSTOR] searches **full-text** for backfile articles and reviews in over 130 multi-disciplinary journals. See [|Project Muse] (below) for more recent articles.

[|Project Muse] Searches **full-text** in over 150 journals supplied by 10 university presses. Click on the //search// button to start your search. Muse works well for more recent periodical issues, while [|JSTOR] (see above) reproduces older volumes.

Try [|Google Scholar], which searches “open-to-the-free-web” peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts, and articles from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

Finally, consider the general periodical databases that are linked to from [|the Library's home page]. Your best bets are Ebsco's [|Academic Search Premier], [|Infotrac's Academic OneFile] and Infotrac's [|Expanded Academic ASAP].

Reference sources
If you search these resources from home, you will be prompted to supply your NetID and password.

[|Magill OnLiterature] is a definitive online source for editorially reviewed critical analyses. It also includes brief plot summaries of the most studied works in the history of literature.

[|Literature Criticism Online] is a digitized collection of ten Gale series solely comprised of literary criticism. These series include the following topics: contemporary literature, 20th century lit., 19th century lit., Shakespeare, lit. from 1400-1800, classical and medieval lit., poetry, short stories, drama, and children's literature. Entries are viewed in a reader embedded in the browser (akin to reading the print version) or can be downloaded as PDF files.

[|Literature Resource Center] identifies biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Coverage of more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. This database only allows 4 simultaneous users.

The [|English Library] on the third floor of the Main Library has a great variety of reference sources that can help you complete this project. Check their website of [|online reference sources] for additional possibilities.

Utopia sources
[|Utopian Studies] is a scholarly journal that covers all aspects of utopias and utopianism. Type the title of your book or author in the search box in the left toolbar. This journal is also indexed in the [|Literature Resource Center].

[|Utopia on the Internet] is a website with a large collection of links to anything and everything utopia-related. Look for bibliographies and references to find more scholarly sources.