British Literature

Using Google to search for literature resources online can be difficult, not least because many of the materials that you will turn up are likely to be papers written by other college students - not a good source if you're trying  to impress your teacher with your research skills!  However, there are good sources of literary criticism and research online, and we've listed some of them below to help you get started.

• The British Library Go to "Catalogues and Collections" or "Discover and Learn" for some great resources related to British literature.
• BritLitBlogs Brit Lit Blogs is the brainchild of six British literary bloggers. Each working hard at bringing readers to forgotten or overlooked books, our BritLitBloggers decided that combining their latest blog entries together in one place would highlight the breadth and depth of British literary blogging.
• Early Modern Literary Studies This full-text e-journal with holdings dating back to 1995 concentrates on sixteenth and seventeenth-century English literature.
• Eighteenth-Century Resources - Literature This page, edited by Jack Lynch of Rutgers — Newark, is part of the larger collection of Eighteenth-Century Resources on the Net.
• English Literature Essays Page Compiled by the London School of Journalism, this resources site offers free electronic texts, general and author-specific websites on English literature, and includes a section titled "Help for Students".
• The Labyrinth-Resources for Medieval Studies Old English and Anglo-Saxon literature resources and e-texts from Georgetown University.
• Lost Titles, Forgotten Rhymes: How to Find a Novel, Short Story, or Poem Without Knowing its Title or Author Locating a novel, short story, or poem without knowing its title or author can be very difficult. This guide is intended to help readers identify a literary work when they know only its plot or subject, or other textual information such as a character's name, a line of poetry, or a unique word or phrase.
• Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature This site combines several sites first created in 1996 to provide a starting point for students and enthusiasts of English Literature. Nothing replaces a quality library, but hopefully, this site will help fill the needs of those who have not access to one.
• The Norton Anthology of English Literature Prepared by the Norton Anthology editors, this extensive, freely accessible Web resource for The Norton Anthology of English Literature offers twenty-seven topics for study and discussion.
• Paris Review Interview Archives Published since the 1950s, contains interviews with literature's major writers.
• Victorian Women Writers Project The Victorian Women Writers Project (VWWP) began in 1995 at Indiana University and is primarily concerned with the exposure of lesser-known British women writers of the 19th century. The collection represents an array of genres - poetry, novels, children's books, political pamphlets, religious tracts, histories, and more.

TIP #1:  USE SITES RECOMMENDED by sources that have editors, professors, scholars, scientists, or librarians who review and select the best sites. Recommended links lists can be found in these research guides created by our librarians, and online databases such as Britannica, CQ Researcher, CREDO Reference.

TIP #2:  USE FORMAT TERMS when using a search engine such as Google:

• Video, movie, streaming media, webcam
• Audio, listen, hear, transcript, recording, MP3, interview, podcast, lecture, presentation
• Document, research report, academic, scholarly, journal, statistics, pdf, “white paper” “policy statement” “environmental impact report” “primary source” summary, abstract, overview, history, background, chronology, timeline       
• Encyclopedia, dictionary, handbook, manual, “how to”

TIP #3:  USE SEARCH COMMANDS, or use the advanced search:

• Google Advanced Search: ...................  http://www.google.com/advanced_search
• “post traumatic stress disorder”............. Quotation marks around a phrase finds that exact phrase
• +women  +careers  +nontraditional....... Plus mark requires words to occur on each page retrieved
• +surfing –internet................................. Minus mark will exclude sites with marked words
• +medic?  +”heart disease”.................... Wildcard symbol finds all words that begin with those letters
• +medic*  +”heart disease”..................... Some systems use the ? and some use the * just try both
• Either medic? or medic*........................ Finds medic, medics, medicine, medicines, medications, etc.

TIP #4:  USE SITE SEARCH to limit to .edu, .gov, or to specific websites:

• “bird flu” site:.edu                            finds the exact phrase “bird flu” only in .edu websites
• bird flu site:www.who.int.en            finds the words bird flu on the World Health Organization website
• mental health statistics site:.gov     finds the words mental health statistics only in .gov websites

TIP #5:  USE LOTS OF SEARCH WORDS that relate to your topic. Think of synonyms, variant forms, and plurals. Consider what words might be used by journalists or popular media, as compared to scientists, specialists, or researchers. Remember, you are searching a HUGE database with all kinds of content. Maximize your chances for success by including as many search words as possible. Some examples:

• protest demonstration unrest march riot police government civil disobedience
• women woman gender careers occupations jobs discrimination income salary salaries wages
• teenagers adolescents teens young adults youth social cultural norms pressures problems issues
• crime criminals violent offenders prevention recidivism treatment education programs

TIP #6:  TRY OTHER SEARCH ENGINES. Each Internet search engine uses its own proprietary search system, and some are better with certain types of search than others. Most will allow you to use the same search commands outlined in this guide. Engines listed below are the Top Ten most popular search engines in the world, by 2018 market share.

1. Google commands 75% market share of all searches worldwide
2. Bing is under 10%, but often better for finding images
3. Yahoo provides email accounts, finance and marketing tools, and a news aggregator
4. Ask.com, based on Q&A format with answers from other users or polls
5. AOL.com, still popular due to ownership of popular blogs and infotainment sites
6. Baidu, in Chinese (only useful if you know Chinese!)
7. Wolframalpha, the “Computational Knowledge Engine” for math and science
8. DuckDuckGo, the only engine that does not track users and usage
9. Internet Archive, aka “The Wayback Machine” archives historical sites and older versions of current sites
10. Yandex, in Russian (only useful if you know Russian!)

Once you've found a good website, you need to use your critical thinking skills to evaluate the information:

The following guides may also be useful for you as you research your subject: