ONLINE DATABASES & FULL TEXT RESOURCES
Indexes
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Annual Bibliography of English
Language and Literature (ABELL) ABELL indexes scholarly criticism found in monographs, journal
articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays and doctoral
dissertations. The subject areas ABELL covers include poetry, prose, fiction, films, biography,
travel writing, literary theory and studies of individual authors. The online version of ABELL not
only allows users to search by keyword, subject, author, title and journal, but it also allows
users to limit search results to primary works only or reviews only. Also available in print.
Restricted to University of Illinois users. Please use our
ABELL Brief Search Guide to find out
how to use the database effectively. Our
ABELL Citation Guide can help you
interpret your results.
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Arts & Humanities Citation
Index (A&HCI)
[Web of Science] Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary
database covering academic journal literature. It indexes 1,100 of the world's leading arts and
humanities journals, as well as individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science
and social science journals. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
SEARCHING NOTE: The only way to get full results from A&HCI from Web of
Science is to follow these steps: 1) click on the second tab from the left on the gateway page,
"Select a Database." 2) Click on "Web of Science" and 3) scroll down to check ONLY the
A&HCI dialog box.
Full results will not be returned from a raw search at the gateway page.
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Chaucer Bibliography Online Chaucer Bibliography Online is
an extensive database that covers articles and analyses of Chaucer's works back to 1975. It
is supported by the University of Texas at San Antonio Library and the New Chaucer Society.
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Current Biography contains more
than 15,000 full text biographies and more than 9,400 obituaries from all of the volumes of Current
Biography Yearbook, from 1940 to the present.The biographies are searchable by name, profession,
title, place of origin, gender, race/ethnicity, titles of works, date of birth, date of death, and
keywords.
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Dissertation Abstracts
Dissertation Abstracts identifies doctoral dissertations from U.S. & Canadian institutions.
Abstracts from 1980. Includes
Digital Dissertations, a full-text database of virtually every U.S. dissertation
deposited since 1997.
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EBSCO: Academic Search Premier
(Full-Text) Academic Search Premier is a multidisciplinary database providing full-text access
to over 1500 periodicals (1990 to present), and citation/summary access to articles from nearly
4000 periodicals (1984 to present). This collection of journals and magazines provides some
full-text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study, including the arts, humanities
and literature. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
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The Film and Television Literature
Index (in EBSCO)
Film & Television Literature Index is the definitive index to film and television
literature. It is a bibliographic database that provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for
more than 300 publications (and selected coverage of 301).
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Index to Film Periodicals
(FIAF) Indexes film literature from 300 periodicals since 1972, and includes the FIAF
thesaurus. Additionally, the database features print sources for 22,000 silent films, a
bibliography of FIAF members' publications and a directory of film and TV documentation
collections. This database is an acclaimed international compendium of information on film and
television from the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). Restricted to University of
Illinois users. For help in searching FIAF, please look at our
FIAF Search Guide, and visit our
FIAF Citation Guide to interpret
your search results.
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JSTOR JSTOR searches
full-text for backfile articles and reviews in 130+ multi-disciplinary journals. Use
Project Muse (see below) for
more recent articles. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
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Literature Compass publishes
peer reviewed survey articles from across the entire discipline. Experienced researchers, teaching
faculty, and advanced students will all benefit from the accessible, informative articles that
provide overviews of current research.
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Literature Criticism Online
collects all of Gale's series on literary criticism, including:
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century
Literature Criticism, Shakespeare Criticism, Literature Criticism 1400-1800, Classical and Medieval
Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, Drama Criticism, and Children’s
Literature Review
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Literature Resource Center
includes full text journal articles, biographical content, topical overviews, literary journals and
book reviews. An excellent place to start research in literature.
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The MLA Bibliography The
MLA (Modern Language Association) Bibliography indexes scholarly criticism in language, literature,
folklore, and linguistics from 1963 to the present. Also available in print form. Access restricted
to University of Illinois users. See our guides to
searching and parsing
citation in the MLA.
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Project Muse Searches full-text
for 150+ journals supplied by 10 university presses. Muse works well for more recent periodical
issues, while
JSTOR
(see above) contains articles from older volumes. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
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Indexes
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Reference
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Full-Text Primary
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Bibliographic
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Class Specific Resources
Reference Works
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Biography Resource Center
Provides access to the biographies of over 300,000 people prominent in subject areas such as
science, multicultural studies, business, politics, government, history, entertainment, sports, the
arts, and literature. All time periods and nationalities are covered.
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Columbia Granger's World of
Poetry Columbia Granger's World of Poetry includes 13,000 public domain poems in
full-text, thousands of excerpts from in-copyright poems as well as 250,000 poetry citations that
can be searched by title, first line, last line, author, subject and keyword. This electronic
resource also contains commentaries, biographies that are followed by a short bibliography, notes
on form and a glossary of prosodic terms. A 1995 CD-ROM version is also available in the English
Library.
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Contemporary Authors (in Literature
Resource Center) A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general
nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields. Provides
complete biographical and bibliographical references for more than 90,000 authors in the U.S. and
around the world. Also available in print form.
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Credo
Reference A comprehensive online collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, and
other reference works. The works include The Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature,
Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Chambers' Dictionary of Literary Characters,
and the Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature.
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Dictionary of Literary Biography
(in Literature Resource Center) Documents the lives and careers of authors from all eras
and genres. In addition to providing biographical and critical studies written by scholars and
academics, DLB presents bibliographic information about each author's writings, as well as sources
for further reading. Also available in print form.
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Encyclopedia of Middle Ages A title in the Oxford
Digital Reference Shelf. Provides 3,000 concise and detailed articles on all aspects of the
period from the fifth to the fifteenth century. It explores art, architecture, religion, law,
science, language, philosophy, and theology, as well as cultural, religious, intellectual, social
and political history. With a focus on focus on Europe and Christendom, the Encyclopedia also
covers the rise of Islam and people of other cultures with whom Europeans came into contact.
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Modern American
Poetry (MAPS) A comprehensive resource site on American poetry from the English department at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Based on the
Anthology of Modern American Poetry
from Oxford University Press, MAPS offers a collection of resource webguides for a number of
American poets. The webguides feature information such as historical background, analyses of the
poets' works, relevant illustrations, book reviews, and excerpts of poems.
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Magill OnLiterature
Compiled by Salem Press, this database is the definitive online source for editorially reviewed
critical analyses. It also includes brief plot summaries of the most studied works in the history
of literature. It contains all of Masterplots and Masterplots II, Cyclopedia of World Authors,
Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Magill's Literary Annual, Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and
Fantasy as well as World Philosophers and Their Works.
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Middle English Compendium
The Middle English Compendium offers access to and interconnectivity betwen three electronic
resources for Middle English: the Middle English Dictionary, a HyperBibliography of Middle English
Prose and Verse, and a network of electronic resources.
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NoveList NoveList is an
electronic readers advisory resource which assists fiction readers in finding new authors and
titles. It contains materials for all ages including picture books, childrens chapter books, young
adult titles and books for adult readers (around 70,000 fiction titles). NoveList is updated
quarterly.
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Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography (DNB) Over 50,000 biographies of important and notable figures in the history
of the British Isles, from the 4th Century B.C.E. to the year 2000. Includes 10,000 portrait
illustrations. Provides access to both the new, 60 volume DNB, as well as to biographies in the
original Victorian classic.
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Oxford English Dictionary A
searchable online version of the second edition and supplements of the
OED, with periodic updates from the third revised edition. Also available in print.
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Oxford Reference Online: The Library has canceled its subscription to this
reference title because Oxford University Press ceased to update the resources.
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WATCH: Writers
and Their Copyright Holders Provides the name and address of the copyright holder for a
writer's works. In addition, it gives advice on finding the copyright holder if he/she is not
included in the database.
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William Shakspere's Small Latine &
Lesse Greeke "Shakespeare had 'small Latine and lesse Greeke', according to his contemporary,
Ben Jonson. This famous judgment can be misleading to those living more than four centuries later.
Learn more about Shakespeare's early education from these two remarkable volumes, originally
published in 1944 by the University of Illinois Press, and available on the Web for the first time
as a fully searchable, open-access electronic archive."
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Indexes
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Class Specific Resources
Full-Text Primary Resources
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20th Century African-American
Poetry A database of modern and contemporary African-American poetry from the early twentieth
century to the present. Features 10,000 poems by around 70 of the most important African-American
poets of the last century.
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American National
Biography Contains 17,435 biographical portraits of deceased Americans from the 1999
print edition, plus 500 new portraits added yearly and periodic updates of the biographies,
bibliographies, and hyperlinks. Searchable by keyword, name, sphere of activity, birthplace, birth
and death dates, and author/compiler. Contains 80,000 cross-reference links, and selected links to
other sites.
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American Poetry Full-Text
Database Features the works of more than 200 American poets from the Colonial period to the
early twentieth century. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
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Archive of Americana (READEX)
Search or browse the Archive of Americana's comprehensive historical collections, containing books,
pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera. American State Papers,
1789-1838 Legislative and executive documents, many originating from the important period between
1789 and the beginning of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in 1817 Early American Imprints, Series
I: Evans, 1639-1800 Books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the renowned
bibliography by Charles Evans Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 Books,
pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the distinguished bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw
and Richard H. Shoemaker Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690-1876 Hundreds of historic
newspapers listed in Clarence Brigham's authoritative bibliography and in additional subsequent
bibliographies U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980 Reports, documents, and journals of the
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, originally published in approximately 13,800 bound
volumes.
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Bible in English Contains
twenty-one different versions of the English Bible. Restricted to University of Illinois
users.
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Bibliography of American Literature
(BAL) The BAL provides nearly 40,000 records of the literary works of approximately 300
American writers from the period of the Revolution to 1930. Restricted to University of Illinois
users.
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British Periodicals provides
access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth,
comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images.
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Dickens: Letters Dickens:
Letters contains eleven volumes of
The Letters of Charles Dickens (the Pilgrim Edition). General editors: Madeline House,
Graham Storey, Katheleen Tillotson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965ff.
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Dictionary of Old English
Corpus University of Toronto's searchable full-text database of the surviving 3000+ Old English
texts. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
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Early American Fiction A
collection of 440 full texts of the first editions of American novels and short stories written
before 1850 by authors of significance.
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Early English Prose Fiction
Contains over 200 works of prose fiction dating from 1500-1700. Restricted to University of
Illinois users.
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Eighteenth Century Collections
Online (ECCO) Provides access to the digital images of every page of 150,000 books published
during the 18th Century. Containes full-text searching of approximately 33 million pages of
information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more.
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Eighteenth Century Fiction
Includes 77 complete works in English prose from the period 1700-1780, by writers from the British
Isles. Restricted to University of Illinois users
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English Poetry Database
Comprises the works of almost 1,350 poets from 600-1900. Restricted to University of Illinois
users.
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English Drama A unique
collection of more than 3,900 plays in verse and prose tracing the development of drama in English
from the medieval mystery cycles to the comedies of Oscar Wilde. Includes the contents of
formerly distinct resources
English Prose Drama and
English Verse Drama.
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The Modernist Journals Project
Full-text digitization of early modernist journals written in English between 1890 and 1922. Some
ancillary critical sources are also included.
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The On-Line Books Page Founded in 1993 and
currently maintained at the University of Pennsylvania, this site includes thousands of freely
available full-text online books collected from various e-text sites (some are searchable).
Includes special sections on women writers, literary prize winners, and some foreign language
titles. To find primary English and American literature, browse the
Language and Literature
page.
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Representative Poetry On-Line
University of Toronto's searchable full-text database of English poetry from the medieval period to
the early twentieth century.
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Scottish Women Poets of the
Romantic Period
Scottish Women Poets of the
Romantic Period contains 60 volumes of Romantic Poetry from 47 poets, extensive contemporary
critical reviews, as well as material specially written for this database by leading scholars.
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(Shakespeare) Editions and
Adaptations of Shakespeare Contains eleven major editions from the First Folio of 1623 to the
Cambridge edition of 1863-6, twenty-eight separate contemporary printings of individual plays and
poems, selected apocrypha and related works. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
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University of
Virginia E-Texts Provides access to the full-text of a variety of literary works. Covers texts
written in several languages. Some of the links, however, are restricted to University of Virginia
users.
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W.B.
Yeats Collection Contains the major works of Yeats in all genres, including poetry, plays,
criticism, and fiction, based upon the Scribner/Macmillan Collected Edition and other sources.
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Women Writer's Project This
long-term project at Brown University makes texts by pre-Victorian women writers accessible in
electronic form. In addition to full text documents, the site includes a searchable catalogue,
topical essays, and links to related sites.
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Indexes
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Bibliographic
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Class Specific Resources
Bibliographic Resources
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ArchiveGrid Offers access to
holdings and contact information for more than 4,800 repositories, with details of holdings and
areas of special interest. It indexes over 109,000 special collections and includes the Directory
of Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the United States (DAMRUS), the National Union Catalogue
of Manuscript (NUCMC), and National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States
(NIDS).
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CIC VEL (Virtual Electronic Library) Not currently available. Contact
IRRC for assistance.
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English Short Title Catalogue
(ESTC) The ESTC contains records for works printed in England and territories governed by
Britain from 1473 through 1800, as well as works printed in English elsewhere in the world during
that period. It reflects the holdings of over 1500 libraries around the world as of December 1997.
See also
Early English
Books Online (EEBO) (above) for related information. Available only through networked
public-access "Library Gateway" PC terminals as CD-ROM version. For help in searching ESTC,
please look at our
ESTC Search Guide.
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The MLA Directory The MLA
Directory lists over 3,700 periodicals in the areas of literature, language, linguistics, and
folklore that are covered regularly in the MLA International Bibliography. The directory provides
addresses, advertising rates, and information about submissions for publication. Access restricted
to University of Illinois users.
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World Shakespeare Bibliography
Online The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online provides annotated entries for all important
books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions,
audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials related to
Shakespeare and published or produced between 1971 and early 2002. The scope is international and
the database includes more than 75,000 records which cite several hundred thousand additional
reviews of books, productions, films and audio recordings. Access restricted to University of
Illinois users.
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WorldCat WorldCat is the union
catalog of
OCLC member libraries worldwide, with over 43 million
records representing materials in all formats.
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Indexes
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Bibliographic
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Class Specific Resources
Class Specific Resources
University Library