Literature Research Guide | Oregon State University Libraries

Find Books: Catalogs

Summit (Orbis Cascades) Catalog
Academic libraries in Oregon and Washington. Request books not at OSU (or checked out) and have them sent here in 3-4 working days

Suggest books you'd like the library to purchase.

Borrowing from other libraries

Books:

First see if a book is available through Summit. If it's not, request it through WorldCat.

Articles in journals:

Request through InterLibrary Loan. Articles are delivered electronically, so the turnaround time is often 24 hours or less but may take up to 5 working days.

Call Numbers

The literatures and languages collection is on the 4th floor of Valley Library.

PA 1-8595	Classical languages and literature
PL 1-8844	Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania (Japanese language and literature PL501-889) (Chinese language and literature PL1001-3207)
PN 1-6720	Literary history and collections (General) esp. PN 1600-3300 Drama
PN 1600-3300	Drama
PQ 1-9999	Romance literatures (French literature PQl-3999) (Spanish literature PQ6001-8929)
PR 1-9680	English literature
PS 1-3565	American literature
PT 1-9999	Germanic literature

See the Library of Congress Classification Outline for a more detailed list of call numbers.

Illustrated Manuscript

Photo by Mary Harrsch. Flickr Creative Commons

Research Databases

MLA International Bibliography
THE database for researching topics in literature, film and languages. Indexes books, journals and dissertations. Includes some full text and a "Get This Item" links to full text articles from other publishers.
Coverage Dates: 1926 - present
Academic Search Premier
Not as extensive as MLA International Bibliography but a good starting place for finding articles in journals and magazines.
Coverage Dates: 1975 - present
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
Unique feature is the cited reference search (see who has cited an author or work).
Coverage Dates: 1980 - present
JSTOR
An archival collection of journal articles that includes over 140 titles in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. It does not provide access to the most current issues of the journals. JSTOR's agreements with publishers include a gap between the most recently published issue and the date of the most recent issues available in JSTOR ranging, in most cases, from 2 to 5 years. OSU Libraries subscribes to Arts & Sciences I, Ecology & Botany and the General Science Collections. Full Text: Dates vary by journal

Concurrent Users: unlimited
Coverage Dates: Varies by Journal
Project Muse
Launched in 1995 by the Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at John Hopkins University, Project MUSE is an interdisciplinary collection of high quality, peer reviewed journals.

Concurrent Users: unlimited
Coverage Dates: Varies by journal
Johns Hopkins Online Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
Now expanded and updated, The Johns Hopkins Online Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism is an indispensable resource for scholars and students of literary theory and discourse. Revised extensively to reflect a decade of rapidly changing scholarship, the Online Guide features 48 new entries and subentries. Compiled by 275 specialists from around the world, the Online Guide presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements. It includes more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.

Concurrent Users: unlimited
Coverage Dates: 2005

Full-Text Journal Collections

The OSU Libraries subscribe to many, many, many more e-journals than those included in the following collections. These collections are particularly strong in the humanities, however:

You can search Project Muse and JSTOR simultaneously from the Project Muse platform: Show me