Poetry

EBSCOhost updated their search engine over the summer. It looks a bit different but still has the same database resources. Some of the changes: limit searches without leaving the results page, "Your Folder" options increased, PDF view enhanced and more.  Please do take the time to read about the new features (located in the upper right corner).

Be sure to sign up for a free account to save your research!

The MLA International Bibliography indexes critical literary language scholarship internationally from case studies, dissertations, essays, journals, proceedings, working papers. It is an index (citations, abstracts with limited full text) and has access to full text through Journal Linker and/or InterLibrary Loan. A full tutorial can be found here on the MLA.org site.

The MLA Directory of Periodicals indexes the journals in International Bibliography. One can find publisher information, ISSN, and sometimes websites. Use the Poet's name (last, first, or simply last name) as a subject when searching this database.

The International Bibliography and Directory of Periodicals are available for off campus use with a University Network ID.

• Rule of thumb - select Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals
• Remember to use field SA Subject Primary Author for works about the Poet
• Start without Full Text so you can see the range of articles available

Sample Searching Strategy for MLA:

1st pass "What's out there?" Leave off linked full text. This should yield a higher number of hits.

2nd pass "Whoa, too many hits!" Use the right hand side of screen to limit your results (linked full text, journal article, dates, etc).

Example: Searching for Arnold, Matthew
              No limiters set at all yields 1539 hits - way too many
              Scholarly limiter added yields 675 - better, but too many
              Add Full Text and SA field yields 113
              Additional filters on Subject, Date, Source, etc., can be added to limit even further.

The Citation Screen

The citation screen contains information on the author, publication, subjects, abstracts, etc.(sample below). Citations can give you new search terms (subjects) to use in your research. Clicking on a highlighted link will bring up related search results.

The (new) PDF Viewer

The new viewer displays the article as a PDF inside a browser window (no printing capability). In order to print, use the "Download PDF" to save to desktop, open from desktop and print.