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EN 3391 - Author and Work

This guide supports research for this this course, which focuses on the body of work by one or two major authors, with an emphasis on specific genres developed by writers.

Discover: Find articles, books, and more...

Discover at the Blume Library log


Advanced Search | What is Discover?

Database Search Tips

  • Consider what type of information you need and where you might find it.
  • Break your topic into key concepts and identify terms for each concept. Start with fewer words. Less yields more.
  • Don't be too narrow in your search, especially initially.
  • While it is possible to find sources on international or local topics, the strength of many of our academic databases is coverage of US national topics.
  • Use Boolean connectors like AND, ORand NOT to connect keywords. Many databases search the words as a phrase otherwise.
  • In general, avoid using prepositions like "in," "of," and "on."
  • Truncation characters such as an * (asterisk) can expand your search by retrieving various forms of a word, e.g., comput* retrieves computer, computers, computing, computation, etc.
  • Look at the subject terms or descriptors that are used for articles that appear relevant. Try other searches using those terms.
  • In the sciences and social sciences, when starting a journal article search on a topic, consider adding systematic review or meta-analysis, or literature review in your search.
  • Consult a librarian or your faculty member for additional related terms.
  • Think about which individuals or groups of people or organizations are associated with your topic. These might be additional terms to search.

Evaluate Article Relevance & Quality

  • Look at subject terms applied to relevant articles. Did you find additional articles by searching these subject headings?
  • Which terms or search strategies yielded the best results?
  • Look at the abstract. Are there additional keyword terms you might search?
  • How long is the article?
  • In which journal or periodical was this article published? What is the journal's or magazine's reputation? How do you know?
  • When was the article published? What time period does the research or article cover?
  • Who is the author of the article? What are the author's credentials? What qualifies the author as an expert?
  • What sources are cited in this article?
  • How will this source advance the research project?
  • See Evaluate Information for more criteria.

English Literature & Language Databases

  • Gale Literature Resource Center
    • TexShare
    Best Bet
    Gale Literature Resource Center makes it easy to search biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors from around the world and throughout different time periods. This database provides critical analysis, primary sources, and detailed work overviews, along with in-depth biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information. There are more than 165,000 complete entries from popular literature series, including two award-winning series, Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors and Gale Literature: Dictionary of Literary Biography.
  • Gale Literature: LitFinder
    • TexShare
    Best Bet
    Gale Literature: LitFinder provides access to literary works and authors throughout history and includes more than 130,000 full-text poems and 650,000+ poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, and plays. The database also includes secondary materials like biographies, images, and more.
  • JSTOR Best Bet Featured
    JSTOR journals, books, images, and primary sources are integrated into a single, robust platform that uses the latest digital technologies and best practices. JSTOR provides access to over 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.

    Full runs of journals from more than 2,800 top scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. More than 100,000 ebooks from 250+ renowned scholarly publishers, integrated with journals and primary sources on JSTOR. This source also includes open-access articles!
  • HathiTrust Digital Library Best Bet
    HathiTrust was founded in 2008 as a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries now preserving 18+ million digitized items in the HathiTrust Digital Library. We offer reading access to the fullest extent allowable by U.S. and international copyright law, text and data mining tools for the entire corpus, and other emerging services based on the combined collection.

    In the HathiTrust Digital Library collection, you can find titles on everything from African History, Economics, and French Literature to Solar Energy, Public Health, and materials published in more than 400 languages. The digital library of 18+ million digitized items brings together the collections of more than 60 academic and research libraries from across North America and other countries. Users from around the world use the digital library for their undergraduate and graduate studies, personal research, genealogy, and professional purposes such as law and journalism.
  • Alexander Street Video
    • Not included in Discover, the Blume Library's meta-search.
    • TexShare
    Alexander Street publishes more than 80 collections totaling many millions of pages, audio tracks, videos, images, and playlists. We’re concentrating on building the best collections we can across the curriculum—in literature; music; women's history; black history; psychological counseling and therapy; social and cultural history; drama, medical, theatre, film, and the performing arts; religion; sociology; and other emerging areas.
  • Choice Reviews
    • Not included in Discover, the Blume Library's meta-search.
    Since its founding in 1964, Choice has led the industry in high-quality evaluations of nonfiction academic writing. Choice Reviews and its print companion, Choice magazine, are invaluable sources of bibliographic reference and recommendation for both collection development and individual research. Choice Reviews and Choice publish 4,200 new reviews annually, contain over 200,000 reviews of academic monographs, and serve 2,400 institutions worldwide.
  • Credo Reference
    Credo Reference's curated, authoritative reference sources provide a firm foundation for understanding a topic. Core Collection subscribers can search in hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, subject-specific book titles, video titles, thousands of images, audio files, and maps. The eBook Collection features thousands of core reference works from acclaimed imprints such as Facts On File, Ferguson's, and Bloom's on a wide range of subject areas, from history to science, literature, and more. Fianlly, Films On Demand is a comprehensive, curriculum-focused video subscription providing unlimited access to thousands of videos in 30+ subjects, including the humanities, science, business, literature, health, and more. Professors can stimulate and reinforce their lectures, and students can find inspiration and materials for their research. New content is added regularly.
  • Films on Demand
    36,570 titles and 282,830 segments of streaming videos from a variety of popular and educational publishers/producers. Content includes a wide variety of subject areas including movies, plays, speeches, interviews, documentaries, lectures, and more.

    Subjects covered include Anthropology, African Studies, Asia & The Pacific, Latin American Studies, Art & Architecture, Biology, Business & Economics, Communication, Counseling & Social Work, Criminal Justice & Law, Earth Science, Education, Engineering, English, Entertainment, Environmental Science, Geography, Health & Medicine, History, Mathematics, Music & Dance, Philosophy & Religion, Physical Science, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Technology & Society, World Languages

    Learn more about this resource: FILMS ON DEMAND
  • Gale Books & Authors
    • TexShare
    Full-text access to reviews of popular fiction and non-fiction books for all levels of readers. Searches can be performed for titles, authors, subjects, or series.

    Content includes:
    Fiction - Fantasy fiction, Historical fiction, Horror stories, Inspirational fiction, Mystery fiction, Popular romances, Science fiction, Western fiction

    Non-Fiction - Biographies, Business, Health/Medicine, Humanities, Science, Social Studies, Technology
  • Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
    • TexShare
    Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is the premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration to marijuana. This cross-curricular resource supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Informed, differing views help learners develop critical-thinking skills and draw their own conclusions.

    Opposing Viewpoints is a rich resource for debaters and includes viewpoints, reference articles, infographics, news, images, video, audio, and more. A category on the National Debate Topic provides quick and easy access to content on frequently studied and discussed issues. Periodical content covers current events, news and commentary, economics, environmental issues, political science, and more.
  • Gale Literature: Scribner Writer Series
    • TexShare
    This collection includes Scribner literature titles that focus on different aspects of world and genre literature. World literature titles include African Writers, Latin American Writers, Ancient Writers, and more. For example, African Writers is a 2-volume set that covers 65 African writers from seventeen countries writing in English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, and indigenous languages. Authors span the late 19th century to the present and include such figures as: Najib Mahfuz, Wole Soyinka, and Nadine Gordimer. Genre titles include Mystery and Suspense Writers, Science Fiction Writers, Writers for Young Adults, and more. For example, Mystery And Suspense Writers is a 2-volume set on mystery, detective, and espionage fiction and covers in 84 articles some of the most influential and popular writers of the genre, including Elmore Leonard, Sue Grafton, and Patricia Cornwell.
  • Infobase eBooks
    971 popular literary novels written by popular and literarily significant authors.

    Subjects to search include- careers & education, Literature criticism, and reference, multicultural studies, Mythology and paranormal, religion and philosophy, and US. history, Women studies and world history
  • Kanopy

    A video streaming service with a broad selection of documentaries, feature films, and training videos from thousands of producers. Featured producers include BBC, the Criterion Collection, the Great Courses, HBO, PBS, and many more.

    Content includes- Anthropology, Art and Architecture, Business, Education, Everyday Health, Film Studies, Global Studies & Languages, History, Law & Criminal Justice, Media & Communications, Medicine, Music, Theater & Dance, Political Science, Psychology, Sciences, and Sociology.


    Learn more about this resource: https://lib.stmarytx.edu/kanopy

  • MLA International Bibliography
    Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the bibliography directs researchers to more than 3 million citations from journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, scholarly websites, editions, and translations published from the late 19th century to the present.

    MLA International Bibliography covers a broad range of humanities subjects, including world languages and literature, linguistics, dramatic arts, film, folklore, rhetoric and writing studies, the teaching of language, and the history of publishing. Its expansive scope also makes it an excellent resource for research in history, philosophy, communications, and cross-disciplinary subjects such as gender studies and area studies.

    Content Includes:
    3,100,000 records
    25,000 indexed journals and book series
    2,000 book publishers
  • Twentieth Century American Poetry
    • Not included in Discover, the Blume Library's meta-search.
    • TexShare
    This collection includes 50,000 poems drawn from 750 volumes by over 300 poets, including Adrienne Rich, Andrei Codrescu, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Denise Levertov, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Lucille Clifton, and Cathy Song.
  • Twentieth Century English Poetry
    • Not included in Discover, the Blume Library's meta-search.
    • TexShare
    A collection of 598 volumes of poetry by 283 poets from 1900 to 2000, including W.B. Yeats, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen, Thom Gunn, Fleur Adcock, Paul Muldoon, Tony Harrison, Benjamin Zephaniah and Carol Ann Duffy, and incorporating poets from The Faber Poetry Library.
  • Washington Post
    • Not included in Discover, the Blume Library's meta-search.
    Full text of the Washington Post. Coverage 1987 to the present. Searchable. Has distinguished itself through its reporting on international politics and policy, security and all facets of the U.S. government.
  • Women Film Pioneers Project (WFPP)
    • Not included in Discover, the Blume Library's meta-search.
    • Open Access

    The Women Film Pioneers Project (WFPP) is a digital publication and resource that advances research on the hundreds of women who worked behind the scenes during the silent film era. Always expanding, WFPP publishes original scholarship on women who worked all around the world as directors, producers, screenwriters, editors, and more.

    WFPP features short career profiles on single individuals, longer thematic peer-reviewed overview essays, and shorter multimedia posts, all by film scholars, film curators, archivists, and historians. In our published profiles, we cover women who worked in national cinemas across six of the seven continents.

    As of November 2022, there are 313 women represented by our published pioneer profiles.

Journals List Search

Looking for a specific journal, magazine, or newspaper?

Use Journals List to search for the title of a journal, magazines, or newspaper and determine if the library offers online access or print access to that publication.

Journal Directory