LIBRARY GUIDE TO ENG 6900 - Antebellum U.S. Literature and Culture

1. Your starting point is this print index shelved on the library's main floor: American Fiction, 1774-1850: A Contribution Toward a Bibliography (Ref. PS 643.A1 W9 1969)--This volume includes an author index as well as a chronological index.
2. Next, search for your title in  WorldCat to ensure that your selection is not available in an electronic format (scroll through all the retrieved records).
   
3.  Send your selection to Professor Insko for approval. He may reject your title based upon his familiarity with the work.  
4. When you've found an acceptable title, intiate an ILLiad (interlibrary loan) request (the WorldCat record contains a direct link to ILLiad (blue button)).
5. The ILL office will contact you via OU email when your microfilm is ready for pick up.
6. Kresge Library has one reader capable of printing or scanning to create a PDF (this machine is behind the circulation desk--staff will copy the needed pages).
7. Do not hesitate to contact me for further assistance at any point in your research process. Reference desk help is also available (weekends or late hours): 248-370-4426, ref@oakland.edu.

WorldCat--Catalog listing library holdings worldwide (search will find electronic records too).

OU Library Catalog--Use the catalog to find books or journal titles owned by Kresge Library.

If a catalog search indicates that OU does NOT own a book/journal title, a link to ILLiad and MelCat (catalog listing library holdings statewide) will appear. Follow these links to initiate a request to have the item sent (physically or scanned) to you.

MLA Bibliography--Indexes literary journals from 1926. Includes citations to journal articles, books, chapters, and dissertations.

Humanities Full Text --Indexes humanities (including literature) journal articles from 1984, abstracts beginning in 1994. 

Arts & Humanities Citation Index--Search the articles cited in a particular article [references]; find which articles share references [related records]; and/or which articles have cited a particular article [cited reference]; indexes only journal articles from 1977.

Year's Work in English Studies--Online from 1996. Bibliographic essays citing important titles published in a given year. Great place to learn of the scholarship trends and to get a scholar's opinions about what is being published.

JSTOR--Online collection of many scholarly journals. Use "advanced search."  

Project MUSE --Online index of journals from many university presses and non-profit publishers from current issues back 5 to 10 years. Full text of articles is searchable--descriptors/subjects are also provided. (ProjectMuse and JSTOR have a limited number of literary journals--MLA Bibliography contains more).

Google Scholar--This resouce is not a recommended starting point but can be useful in checking for chapters in books, or the occasional article in a journal OU does not have (be sure to enter Google Scholar from the library's home page--this will allow full access to KL's holdings).

Cambridge Companions Online--Includes volumes on many authors and literary periods. 

Credo Reference  Credo Reference provides full-text online versions of over a thousand reference works in every major subject, including general and subject dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Oxford English Dictionary--Now available online. The OED is a historical dictionary of English, covering the language from the earliest times to the present day and showing the development of meanings through time.

Dictionary of Literary Biography: Now available online. Print volume is shelved on the library's main floor (Ref. PR 541 .S49 1993). 

Chronology of World History (Ref. D 11 .M39 1999 v. 3)--Year by year listing of important events in politics, science, and the arts (including literature).  A quick way to get a picture of what was happening in 19th c. United States (and worldwide).

 RefWorks--Reference management tool that allows you to create a personal database of references and automatically generate formatted bibliographies for your projects.

Step 2 —Export records from the MLA Bibliography. Instructions for exporting.

Step 3 —Create folder/folders for your bibliographic records. (View Organizing your references tutorial.)

Step 4 —Put your imported references into appropriate folders.  A reference can be placed in more than one folder.

Step 5 —Export references from other sources—for example: the Library Catalog , JSTOR, and ProjectMuse.

Step 6 —Add references manually.  Sometimes you have references that you find in books and bibliographies that you need to add “by hand.” 

Step 7 —Share folders.  You can share folders with your fellow students, with your professor, or with anyone. 

Step 8 —Save a folder shared with you to your own RefWorks account.  This involves “exporting” the shared folder to your RefWorks. 

Step 9 —Create a bibliography from your references.

Potential Problems

1.Pop-ups. You may have to change your pop-up settings. RefWorks works better using Firefox (rather than Internet Explorer).

2. When exporting a shared folder to your RefWorks from off campus, you will need to use the access code for OU (RWOakUniv) and log into RefWorks.