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Contemporary American Literature

LITR 217; Prof. E. Shannon
Guide for finding sources at the George T. Potter Library
 

March 17, 2008

Susan B. Kurzmann

skurzman@ramapo.edu

• Library Homepage
• Find Books
• Reference Material
• Journal Finder and Interlibrary Loan
• Find Articles (Databases)
• Websites
• Bibliographies

 I. Library Homepage: http://library.ramapo.edu

• Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, interlibrary loan forms, etc.

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II. Find Books

• Catalog: use this to find books, periodical titles (NOT articles ), government documents, reserve items, music,and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.

• Use the Basic Search to find material using Keywords
  • For example: search for united states and literature to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords
  • Use quotation marks around a multi-word phrase so that the catalog system will treat it as a single word
  • When you find an appropriate title, click on the Subjects, etc. tab located at the top of a catalog record to see which Library of Congress subject headings are discussed in that particular book/DVD/periodical to get to more titles that deal with that subject

OR

• Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress subject heading, for example:

• To search for information ABOUT an author:
  • Last name, first name--Criticism and interpretation, e.g.,

Morrison, Toni--Criticism and interpretation

Literature, Modern, 20th century
• American literature
  • You can subdivide by date: American literature--20th century
  • You can further subdivide:

American literature--20th century--History and criticism

• Authors, Amerian--20th century
• African American authors
• Chinese Americans in literature

 

Tips

1. Start with broad searches. It's much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Subjects, etc. tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
3. In the list of subject headings, Click on to see more information about the term you've entered, such as recommended narrower or broader terms
4. Click on to see scope note and suggestions for further searching in the catalog
5. You can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

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III. Reference Material

• The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).
• Some useful materials for your projects:

August Wilson: A Research and Production Sourcebook	Ref PS3573.I45677 Z87 1998
Cambridge Companion to American Modernism	Ref PS228.M63 C34 2005
Critical Companion to Toni Morrison: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work	Ref PS3563.O8749 Z653 2008
Dictionary of Literary Biography Multivolume set, with each volume focusing on a separate topic, e.g., American Novelists Since World War II or Asian-American Writers	[PS129.D5 v.278, PS129.D5 v.312] Articles available online through databases Literature Resource Center, Contemporary American Literature
John Barth, Jerzy Kosinski, and Thomas Pynchon: A Reference Guide	Ref PS379.Z99W3
March 24, 2008: Magill's Survey of American Literature	Ref PS21.M34 2007
Prentice-Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature	Ref PS508.N3 P743 2006
Twayne Companion to Contemporary Literature in English from the Editors of the Hollins Critic	Ref PS225.T88 2003

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IV. Journal Finder and Interlibrary LoanI

• Journal Finder: Lets you know whether or not you have access to the full text of articles in particular periodicals through our library in print, microform, or via a full-text database. This feature also appears in many of our databases.
  • For example, enter the journal titleAmerican Literature:
    • You'll see the following results:

      available from EBSCO Host in EBSCO Academic Search Premier	find periodical	Full Text: 1929-03-01 - 12 months ago
      available in JSTOR	find periodical	Full Text: 1929-03 - 1999-12
      available in Print Holdings	Library Catalog	Location: Current + 4 years Open Stacks.

    In this case, issues of American Literature from the past five years are in the Open Stacks Periodicals area (2nd floor), and you can access articles from March 1929 until December 1999 in the JSTOR database or from March 1929 until 12 months ago in the Academic Search Premier database.

• Interlibrary Loan: allows studens to borrow a book or article that the George T. Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder page.

• Both of these links can be found under QUICK LINKS on the library's homepage.

V. Find Articles (Databases)

Useful Databases for your projects:

Scholarly/Peer Reviewed/Refereed articles have been reviewed by a selected panel of experts in the discipline covered by that journal. Many of the databases allow you to limit your search to these articles.

Tips   

1. Switch to the Advanced Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
2. Use Boolean Operators--AND, OR, NOT and Quotation Marks when running a search.
3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are zero.
4. Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus link, if available, to find the best terms to use in a database.

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VI. Websites

• See the library's list of Subject Resources
  • See the Literature/Language links

• When doing Internet searching, use Evaluating Websites to determine if the site is authoritative enough to use in your paper.

• Google Scholar

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VII. Bibliographies

• Use the Citing Websites and Print Sources for "Works Cited" citation style guidance
  • Follow the examples given for the MLA citation style
  • Help with the MLA Citation Style and examples

• The Open Handbook Online / Ann Raimes with Maria Jerskey

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• Need more help? Visit or call the Reference Desk: 201.684.7574

OR

Use QandANJ.org, a 24/7 virtual reference service with a reference librarian