General and Background Information
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Oxford English DictionaryThis is the dictionary of dictionaries. It is a historical dictionary which means it provides meanings, history, and pronunciations. Using the OED you can trace the history of a word through time and see how words and means evolved and were used via the quotations and timelines.
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Gale's Literary IndexThis is an index, so you will not find any full text. This index gives you titles of sources you can look for in Discovery search. You will find basic biographical information which can be great for developing your understanding of an author.
Literature Databases
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MLA International Bibliography with Full Text from ESBCOhostMLA International Bibliography indexes citations and full text of journal articles, books, dissertations, and scholarly web sites in disciplines such as language, literature, folklore, linguistics, literary theory and criticism, and the dramatic arts. Coverage includes literature from all over the world and includes citations to materials in many languages other than English. 1926-present.
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Humanities International Complete from EBSCOhostHumanities International Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journals, books and book reviews, art work and images, performances and reviews, literature and criticisms, poems and short stories, and conference proceedings. Full text is available as HTML and PDF; images are available in a variety of formats. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources.
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Literature Resource Center from GaleFind up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism, and reviews on more than 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world, supplemented by Scribner Writers and Twayne's Authors. Full text presented as HTML and PDF. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources.
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Literature Criticism from GaleIncludes full text of 3 references works: Short Story Criticism: most-studied short story writers with a historical survey of the critical response to their work; Drama Criticism: For each play or playwright: critical opinion, a biographical sketch, a chronological list of the writer's major works and more; Children's Literature Review: most popular and influential authors of the genre are assessed through criticism of their major works. Entries presented in HTML and scanned page images that can be exported in PDF.