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Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences — Arts & Humanities
American Literature

Librarian Subject Specialist

Roberto Delgadillo
rdelgadillo@ucdavis.edu — (530) 752‑8266 — Humanities, Social Sciences, and Government Information Services (http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/hss/)

On This Page

  • [Restricted] Restricted to UC Davis Campus and authenticated VPN/Proxy users
  • [Restricted] Library Use or On-Campus Use Only
  • Click on VPN to access resource via Library VPN (requires Kerberos login)

Subject Specific Databases

MLA International Bibliography [via Proquest] (http://search.proquest.com/mlaib/advanced) [Restricted] VPN
The Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB) covers international scholarly materials on all languages, literatures, linguistics, and folklore from around the world. It includes citations to items from journals, series, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. MLAIB does not index book reviews.
Coverage: 1926-present
Related:
Literature Online (LION) (http://lion.chadwyck.com/) [Restricted] VPN
A fully searchable library of over 300,000 works of English and American literature, including selected literary criticism.
Gale Literature Resource Center (http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/ucdavis?db=LitRC) [Restricted] Proxy Server
Full-text biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Combines core literary resources such as Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and the Dictionary of Literary Biography
Gale Literary Index (http://www.galenet.com/servlet/LitIndex)
Gale's Literary Index is a master index to the major literature series published by The Gale Group. It combines and cross references more than 130,000 author names, including pseudonyms and variant names, and more than 140,000 titles into one source.
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) (http://uclibs.org/PID/16473) [Restricted] VPN
Aims to list monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world. The bibliography consists of 71 volumes beginning in 1920 and issued annually in printed volumes. Also available in the database Literature Online (LION).
Coverage: 1920-present
Related:
  • The print version of ABELL is available for 1920-2001 at the Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF). Individual volumes can be requested via Interlibrary Loan.
Periodicals Index Online (PIO) (http://uclibs.org/PID/6848) [Restricted] VPN
Periodicals Index Online is a retrospective database (1665-1995); over 300 philosophy titles are included. It also provides access to a smaller set of titles in fulltext electronic form.
Coverage: 1665-1995
Related:
PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America) (http://uclibs.org/PID/22209) [Restricted] VPN
Contains the searchable full text of PMLA up to 1990, including both articles and bibliographies. From 1922-1962, PMLA published the bibliography now known as the MLA International Bibliography under the article titles "American Bibliography" or "Annual Bibliography."
Coverage: v.4 (1889) - v.105 (1990)
America: History and Life (http://uclibs.org/pid/6159) [Restricted] VPN
Bibliographic database containing citations to articles on American and Canadian history, including ethnic history and relations, from prehistory to the present. Covers more than 2000 journals published worldwide.
Coverage: 1964-present
Black Studies Center [via Proquest] (http://uclibs.org/PID/113795) [Restricted] VPN
Black Studies Center brings together historical and current material for research projects on African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases including the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, The International Index to Black Periodicals, and Newspapers, including the full text backfile of the Afro-American newspaper, The Chicago Defender from 1910-1975.
Related:
Bibliography of American Literature (BAL) (http://uclibs.org/PID/11557) [Restricted] VPN
Nearly 40,000 records of the literary works of approximately 300 American writers from the period of the Revolution to 1930. A Chadwyck-Healy Literature Online collection.
Coverage: 1776-1930
English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) [via British Library] (http://uclibs.org/PID/9573)
Contains records for works printed in any language in England or its dependencies from the beginning of printing through the end of the eighteenth century, as well as works printed in English anywhere else in the world during that period. Includes the former Eighteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC) and the two print short-title catalogues covering 1475-1640 (Pollard & Redgrave) and 1641-1700 (Wing)
Coverage: 1473-1800
19th Century Masterfile (including Poole's Plus)

THIS DATABASE HAS BEEN CANCELED FOR BUDGETARY REASONS. AS AN ALTERNATIVE WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO USE "C-19: The Nineteenth Century Index," A DATABASE WHICH COVERS MUCH OF THE SAME MATERIAL AND MORE. FOR ADDITIONAL ALTERNATIVES, PLEASE CONTACT THE SHIELDS LIBRARY GENERAL REFERENCE DESK.

Enhanced WWW edition of William Frederick Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, which indexes books, newspapers, periodicals and government documents on the 19th Century. Includes an expanding list of other 19th Century indexes, including the New York Times (1863-1905), the New York Tribune (1875-1906), Harper's Magazine Index (1850-1892), Palmers's Index to the Times (London), 1880-1890, and historical government publications indexes for both the United States and Great Britain. These indexes include Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England (1066-1803) and Hansard's Indexes to Debates, House of Commons and House of Lords (1803-1830).

Coverage: 19th century
Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database (http://sffrd.library.tamu.edu/)
An online citation index to over 60,000 historical and critical items about science fiction, fantasy and horror, developed by Hal W. Hall. This index is a useful supplement to the MLA International Bibliography, since it includes both scholarly and fan writing. Does not include book review coverage.
Coverage: 1878-present
Related:
  • For print volume access to the index for years 1878-1995, see Humanities/Social Sciences Reference, 2nd floor Shields Library, PN3433.S2
Alternative Press Index & Archive [via OCLC] (http://uclibs.org/PID/49179) [Restricted] VPN
Alternative Press Index covers over 700 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines covering cultural, economic, political & social change. The Archive indexes the years 1969-1990. For 1990-present, select "AltPressIndex" from the "Search in Database" field. To cross-search both, click on the tab labeled "Databases," then select AltPressIndex and AltPressIndexArchive.
Coverage: 1969-present
Related:
  • The print version of Alternative Press Index is available in Humanities/Social Sciences Reference, 2nd floor Shields Library, HM101.A1 A4
Play Index [via H.W. Wilson] (http://uclibs.org/PID/113654) [Restricted] VPN
Play Index searches publication details of over 30,000 plays published after 1949 and written from Antiquity to the present. Search for plays by title, author, subject, style, genre, cast type, and more. This database searches for copies of plays published both separately and in collections/anthologies.
Related:
  • The print version of Play Index is available for the years 1949-2002 in H/SS Reference, 2nd floor Shields Library, Z5781.P53
African American Song
THE UCD DAVIS SUBSCRIPTION HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Related:
  • If off campus users experience problems, try the proxy server or the alternate URL of ucdavis.classical.com
Smithsonian Global Sound
THE UC DAVIS SUBSCRIPTION HAS BEEN CANCELLED. PLEASE SEE NAXOS MUSIC LIBRARY FOR STREAMING AUDIO.
Related:
  • If off campus users experience problems, try the proxy server or the alternate URL of ucdavis.classical.com
ARTstor (http://uclibs.org/PID/44518) [Restricted] VPN
ARTStor is a library of digital images, associated information, and software tools designed to enhance teaching, learning and scholarship. It contains a searchable database of more than 500,000 digital images, covers many time periods and cultures, and documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, as well as many other forms of visual culture.
Related:
  • ARTstor
    For off-campus access, first register with ARTstor from a computer on campus. Then, you may login from off campus with your ARTstor ID by going directly to www.artstor.org. Or, you may use the VPN or the Proxy Server.
  • If you would like to join a UCD community of ARTstor users to share discoveries and help solve problems, please join our ARTstor Users Group on Smartsite.

General Databases

Academic Search Complete [via EBSCO] (http://uclibs.org/PID/126936) [Restricted] VPN
The multi-disciplinary database Academic Search Complete (ASC) provides full-text access to more than 5,500 periodicals, including over 4,600 peer-reviewed journals, and indexing and abstracts for an additional 9,500 journals and 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. This scholarly collection offers coverage of information in many areas of academic study including, but not limited to: animal science, anthropology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, materials science, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, pharmaceutical sciences, physics, psychology, religion & theology, veterinary science, women's studies, zoology and many other fields. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format.
Coverage: 1887-present
Related:

Full-Text Resources

JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive (http://uclibs.org/PID/1980) [Restricted] VPN
JSTOR provides Full-Text access to back files of hundreds important scholarly journals in nearly 50 disciplines spanning the arts, humanities, social sciences and the sciences. Current issues are now included for selected titles. Holdings vary by journal. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization established with the assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Related:
  • About J Stor (http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/)
    Visit this page to learn about the holdings of JSTOR journals. See Harvest Library Catalog for UC Davis access to recent and current materials.
Project Muse: Scholarly Journals Online (http://uclibs.org/PID/31861) [Restricted] VPN
Project Muse provides full text access to hundreds of journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences and mathematics. It is useful for searching interdisciplinary cultural studies topics. Its full-text search engine permits finer-grained searching than any other index for these journals. Coverage varies by journal.
Related:
Duke University Press Journals Online (http://dukejournals.org/) [Restricted] VPN
The e-Duke Scholarly Collection provides access to current issues of 29 electronic journals from Duke University Press. The list includes 18 titles previously available from Project Muse, in addition to other titles still currently updated in Muse.
American Periodicals Series Online [via Proquest] (http://uclibs.org/pid/16610) [Restricted] VPN
Searchable database of citations and digitized images of the pages of more than 1100 American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century.
Coverage: 1741-1940s
Early American Imprints, Series I (1639-1800). Evans (http://uclibs.org/PID/23074) [Restricted] VPN
This is a full-text collection of books, pamphlets and periodicals published in the United States 1639- 1800. It is a terrific collection of primary source material (more than 36,000 titles when complete) on all aspects of 17th and 18th century life in America and Europe (especially England). It is based on Charles EvansÂ’ American Bibliography, which listed all known publications in this period and is developed from the microform set of those titles, Evans Early American Imprints Series I. For material on the early 19th century (1801-1819), see Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker.
Coverage: 1639-1800
Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819). Shaw-Shoemaker (http://uclibs.org/PID/44298) [Restricted] VPN
This is a full-text collection of books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the United States in the first decades of the 19th century. When the collection is complete in 2007 (the first installment was released in August 2004), it will contain 36,000 primary sources on all aspects of early 19th century America. For 17th and 18th Century American material see Early American Imprints, Series I (1639-1800). Evans.
Coverage: Begun in August 2004, there will be monthly updates through July 2007.
Early American Newspapers [via NewsBank] (http://uclibs.org/PID/42513) [Restricted] VPN
Historic American newspapers from 1690-1876: images and full-text content, complementing the America's Historical Imprints (Early American Imprints) series. The core of the Readex collection is formed by Isaiah Thomas' own collection of colonial and early national period newspapers and supplemented by nearly two million issues added by Thomas' successors at the American Antiquarian Society, and from the collections of other institutions and societies.
Coverage: 1690-1876
Related:
  • This site now also includes the California's Historical Newspapers consisting of 13 titles published between 1850 and 1900.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online [via Gale] (http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/ucdavis?db=ECCO) [Restricted] VPN
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) provides full-text searchable access to the digital images of 150,000 books and other materials published during the 18th Century. Based on the English Short Title Catalog bibliography, it includes English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Coverage: 1701-1800
Related:
Individual Literature Collections from Literature Online (LION) (http://collections.chadwyck.com/) [Restricted] VPN
Search the full text of the following Chadwyck-Healey literature databases: 20th Century African-American Poetry, 20th Century American Poetry, 20th Century Drama, African-American Poetry (1750-1900), American Drama, American Poetry (1600-1900), The Bible in English (990-1970), Early American Fiction, Early English Prose Fiction (1500-1700), Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare (1591-1911), Eighteenth-Century Fiction (1700-1780), English Drama (1280-1915), English Poetry (600-1900), The Faber Poetry Library, Nineteenth-Century Fiction, The W.B. Yeats Collection (1885-1995)
HarpWeek (http://uclibs.org/pid/1554) [Restricted] VPN
Provides full-image reproductions of Harper's Weekly from 1857-1912, one of the most important weekly magazines read by Americans during the 19th Century.
Coverage: 1857-1912
Latino Literature [via Alexander Street Press] (http://uclibs.org/PID/108429) [Restricted] VPN
Latino Literature contains approximately 380 plays and 67,500 pages of prose and poetry by Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Latin writers working in the United States. The majority of Latino Literature is in English,with selected works of particular importance (approximately 25% of the collection) presented in Spanish.
Coverage: 1850-present
Related:
Asian American Drama [via Alexander Street Press] (http://uclibs.org/PID/31412) [Restricted] VPN
When complete Asian American Drama will bring together more than 250 plays, along with related biographical, production, and theatrical information.
Coverage: late 19th century-present
Related:
Black Drama [via Alexander Street Press] (http://uclibs.org/PID/31413) [Restricted] VPN
Black Drama contains the full text of hundreds of plays by playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Also contains theatrical production information.
Coverage: 1850-present
Related:
North American Women's Drama [via Alexander Street Press] (http://uclibs.org/PID/108526) [Restricted] VPN
North American Women's Drama includes full text of over 1000 plays, together with detailed information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Approximately 20% of the titles have never been previously published. The collection begins with the works of Mercy Otis Warren and Susanna Haswell Rowson in the colonial period and spans the 19th and 20th centuries to the present.
Related:
Women and Social Movements in the United States: 1600 to 2000 (http://uclibs.org/PID/36739) [Restricted] VPN
From Alexander Street Press, this database currently includes searchable full text historical documents, a number of document projects based around key questions, teaching tools, plus book, film and website reviews.
Related:
Everyday Life & Women in America, c1800-1920 [via Adam Matthew] (http://uclibs.org/PID/113691) [Restricted] VPN
This digital collection provides access to rare primary source material from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University and The New York Public Library. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of books, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.
Related:
UC Press eBooks Collection [via eScholarship] (http://texts.cdlib.org/escholarship/)
The University of California eBooks Collection includes about 2,000 titles and is made available through a partnership between the University of California Press and the California Digital Library's eScholarship program. About 25% of the titles are available to the general public; the rest are for University of California faculty, staff, and students only.
Coverage: 1982-2004
Making of America (http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/)
Making of America is a digital library of 19th century primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Includes full text of both books and journals.
American Memory [Library of Congress] (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/)
American Memory provides open access to full text historical documents and materials from the Library of Congress. Includes written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
Electronic Text Center Collections (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/uvaonline.html) [Restricted]
From the Electronic Text Center at U. of Virginia, this page contains links to thousands of humanities texts in multiple languages, including religious works, Shakespeare, Chaucer, bestsellers from 1900-1930, and classic American novels.
Related:
  • Note that some links are available only to UVA users.
Twentieth-Century Drama [via Proquest] (http://uclibs.org/PID/42489) [Restricted] VPN
When complete, Twentieth-Century Drama will contain 2,500 plays from throughout the English-speaking world, covering the history of modern drama. The current release includes over 230 plays from Britain, Ireland and Australia.
Coverage: 1890-present
American Drama [via Proquest] (http://uclibs.org/PID/11558) [Restricted] VPN
Offers the searchable full text of more than 1,100 plays from the colonial period to the beginning of the twentieth century. This database is also available through Literature Online (LION).
Coverage: 1714-1915
Related:
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries (http://uclibs.org/PID/9532) [Restricted] VPN
A full text collection of letters and diaries by hundreds of participants and witnesses to the Civil War. Includes biographies, bibliographies and a day-by-day record of events, all accessible via a detailed search engine.
Coverage: 1861-1865
North American Women's Letters and Diaries (NAWLD) (http://uclibs.org/PID/1400) [Restricted] VPN
Includes the full text of diaries and letters of more than 100 women from the 18th and 19th centuries, with biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography on women's narratives.
Coverage: 1675-1950
Related:
Empire Online [via Adam Matthew] (http://uclibs.org/PID/113692) [Restricted] VPN
Empire Online contains several thousand searchable scanned images of original documents relating to Empire Studies. Includes documents from English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and German points of view, and that from indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America. Sections also include thematic essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies.
Coverage: 1492-present
Related:
Women Writers Online (http://www.wwp.brown.edu/texts/wwoentry.html) [Restricted] VPN
Also known as the Brown University Women Writers Project, this full-text database includes writing by pre-Victorian women authors, as well as topic essays and introductions. Documents include notation on original pictures and line breaks. Renaissance Women Online (RWO) is a specific subset of this database.
Coverage: approximately 1500-1830
Related:
Chronicling America (http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/)
This site sponsored by the Library of Congress allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Over a period of approximately 20 years, NDNP will create a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 from all U.S. states and territories. Currently, the site contains selected newspapers from California (The San Francisco Call, Sacramento Record-Union), District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Virginia and Washington.
Coverage: 1836-1922 some full text papers; 1690 - present is a bibliographic record for newspaper titles.
Related:
Online Books Page (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/)
Hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, this website provides access to books in the public domain that are freely readable over the Internet. Also includes limited runs of periodicals.
Early Americas Digital Archives (http://www.mith2.umd.edu/eada/)
The EADA is a collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820. Published by by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities.
Coverage: 1492-1820
Documenting the American South (http://docsouth.unc.edu/)
Created at UNC-Chapel Hill, this is a collection of primary sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the twentieth century. Includes numerous digitized slave narratives.
Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm)
This collection includes web editions of important historical, governmental, and legal documents covering pre-18th Century through 21st century. Includes colonial charters, constitutions, laws and treaties.
Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record (http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/)
This image archive features numerous maps, images, and photographs depicting the slave trade and black culture in the Americas. Most are drawn from sources between the 17th and 19th centuries.

Guides to Electronic, Print, and Other Resources

Literary Research Guide : An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies
Now in its 4th edition, James Harner's comprehensive bibliography of recommended reference works in literature is one of the best starting places for researching the field. Now includes sections on interdisciplinary topics.
Date: 2002
Location: Humanities/Social Sciences Reference PR83.H37 2002
Bibliographic Index
Designed as a "cumulative bibliography of bibliographies" in yearly volumes, this source indexes bibliographies published in books and periodicals. Covers English and some foreign languages.
Coverage: 1937-present
Location: H/SS/GIS Reference Z1002 B5
Essay and General Literature Index
This index cites essays and articles contained in book collections and series that have been published in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. Focus is on the the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Coverage: 1900-present
Location: H/SS/GIS Reference Z5871 E8
PAL: Perspectives on American Literature (http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/pre.html)
Webguide to American literature maintained by Professor Paul Reuben. Provides bibliographies organized by time period and author.

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

American National Biography (ANB)
THE LIBRARY HAS CANCELED ITS SUBSCRIPTION TO THE ONLINE ANB. THE PAPER EDITION IS AVAILABLE IN THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES REFERENCE COLLECTION. This encyclopedia of historical biography contains scholarly articles on more than 18,000 Americans.
Location: H/SS/GIS Reference CT213 A68 1999
Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.oed.com/) [Restricted] VPN
(or OED) is an historical dictionary of English, covering the language from the earliest times to the present day. Entries contain detailed etymological analysis, illustrated by quotations from a wide range of sources.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged [via Chadwyck-Healy] (http://uclibs.org/PID/16454) [Restricted] VPN
A dictionary of the English language containing 450,000 vocabulary entries. America's premier lexicographical work, one of the Individual Literature Collections in Chadwyck-Healy's Literature Online (LION),
Date: 1993 edition

Other Resources

MLA Style Guide [UC Davis Library] (http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/hss/mla.php)
Guide to basic guidelines for using MLA Style in research papers, with link to printable PDF version of page.
Related:
  • For more information, consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (2nd floor Shields Library, H/SS Protected Reference, LB2369 .G53 2003; older editions in general stacks)
Videos & DVDs on the UC Davis Campus: A Location & Information Guide (http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/hss/resources/guides/ucdvideos.php)
This guide describes the scope and policies of different media collections on the UC Davis campus, and includes a printable PDF handout.
Voice of the Shuttle (American Literature Page) (http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2739)
Large metasite with links to general and subject specific resources and organizations in the field of American Literature.
American Literary Resources on the Net (http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/american.html)
Internet resources on American literature that are part of a larger site on literary resources from Jack Lynch.
H-Net Reviews (http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/)
Online source of scholarly book reviews available from H-Net.
American Studies Crossroads Project (http://crossroads.georgetown.edu/)
This site integrates on-line directories, text archives, sample syllabi, and more to assist researchers and instructors in the field.
The WATCH File (http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/index.cfm)
WATCH (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders) is the project of the Harry Ransom Center and Reading University Library. It is a "database of copyright contacts for writers, artists, and prominent figures in other creative fields."