How to Research Literature Topics: Find Literary Criticism

You can usually find literature criticism articles in two places: in library databases and in books. There is no difference in the quality of the articles, but you may find more articles to choose from when using databases. Or, you may find one format more convenient than the other.

• Academic Search Complete
• Make sure to limit your results to Full Text and Scholarly
• A good place to start your research; also good for researching other disciplines
• Literature Resources from Gale (Gale)
• Enter the title in Title of Work, or enter the author's name in Person By or About.
• Literary Criticism articles will show on the first tab.
  
• Literary Reference Center Plus (EBSCO)
• Search either by title or by author.
• The first tab in this database is ALL results combined. Click the Literary Criticism tab to see just criticism articles.
  
• Literature Criticism Online (Gale)
• Search either by title or by author.
• The results will be a list of "entries" that match your search.
• Click on one entry to open it; within each entry is usually some introductory text and several literary criticism articles.
  
• JSTOR
• Enter either the author's name or the title of the work. It may be helpful to include additional key words on your topic such as a theme or style the work is known for.
  
• All results are articles from scholarly journals.
  

Go to the Library Catalog

1. Click on Advanced Search.
2. Change the drop-down menu for the first box to Subject, then enter the author's name. (It's important to search by subject, not by author because you want to find books about this author, not works by this author).
3. Add the word 'criticism' to your search.
4. Limit the search to Books or to E-books. Note that not all print books are available as e-books, and vice versa.

To find a print book, write down the call number.

To open an e-book, click View Online. (It helps to be logged in through Atlas. If you are not logged in through Atlas, you will be prompted to enter your Borrower ID and PIN.)

To Connect to the Library via Atlas:

1. Log in to Atlas: http://atlas.valenciacollege.edu.

2. Go to the MyAtlas tab, Courses tab, or Employees tab.

3. Under Libraries, click Search the Library.