BC1201 Library Guide Fall05

A Woman Reading, 1869,
Jean-Baptiste-Camille, Corot
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Barnard College Library Research Guide
Fall 2005
BC1201: First Year English
Reinventing Literary History

I The Legacy of the Mediterranean
II The Americas
III Women and Culture

Librarians: Karen Dobrusky, Lois Coleman, Jenna Freedman

Woman with a Cat, 1921
Fernand Léger
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

English Department page for BC1201
Using CLIO to Find Books
Using Indexes & Databases to Find Articles
Using the World Wide Web
Reference Services

REFERENCE BOOKS
Encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference books are useful for:

an overview of a topic
background information
bibliographies

The reference books in this list are available in the Barnard Library Reference Area on the second floor.

General Reference Sources	Call Number in Reference Area
Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery	BL600 .V74 1976
Oxford Classical Dictionary	DE5 .O9 2003
Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory	PN41 .C83 1998
Encyclopedia of the Novel	PN41 .E487 1998
Handbook to Literature	PN41 .H355 2003
Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs	PN43 .D48 1988
Literature and Its Times	PN50 .L574 1997
World Literature and Its Times	PN50 .M625 1999-2004
Encyclopedia of Allegorical Literature	PN56 .A5 L44 1996
Encyclopedia of Literary Modernism	PN56 .M54 E53 2003
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism	PN81 .J53 1994 & online
Encyclopedia of Feminist Literary Theory	PN98 .W64 E53 1997
Critical Survey of Poetry	PN1021 .C7 2002
Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature	PQ7081 .A1 E56 1997 & online via CLIO
Cambridge Guide to Literature in English	PR85 .C29 1993
Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States	PS147 .O94 1995
Oxford Companion to African American Literature	PS153 .N5 O96 1997
Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature	PS221 .B46 1991

Subject Encyclopedias and Handbooks	Call Number in Reference Area
Early Encounters in North America	online
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance	CB361 .E52 1999
Medieval England : an Encyclopedia	DA129 .M45 1998
Medieval France: an Encyclopedia	DC33.2 .M44 1995
Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome	DE59 .C55 1988
Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies	E45 .E53 1993
Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History	E169.1 .E624 2001
Readers’ Companion to American History	E174 .R43 1993 1991
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History	E185 .E54 1996
Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture	F1406 .E53 1996
Women’s Studies Encyclopedia	HQ115 .W645 1999
Encyclopedia of Women in American History	HQ1410 .E53 2001
Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery	HT861 .M24 1998
Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales	PN3437 .O94 2000
Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature	PQ149 .F47 1999
Oxford Companion to Shakespeare	PR2892. O94 2001

Criticism Series	Call Number in Reference Area
LC: Literature Criticism from 1400-1800	PN86 .L56
CMLC: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism	PN681.5 .C57
NCLC: Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism	PN761 .N56
CLC: Contemporary Literary Criticism	PN771 .C59
TCLC: Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism	PN771 .G27
PC: Poetry Criticism	PN1010 .P499
SSC: Short Story Criticism	PN3373 .S56
SC: Shakespearean Criticism	PR2965 .S43

Authors: Biography and Overview	Call Number in Reference Area
Ancient Writers: Greece and Rome	PA3002 .A5 1982
African Writers	PL8010 .A453 1997
European Writers	PN501 .E9 1983
Latin American Writers	PQ7081 .A1 L37 1989
British Writers	PR85 .B688
American Writers	PS129 .A55
DLB: Dictionary of Literary Biography	PS129 .D5 & online
American Women Writers	PS147 .A42 2000

Additional resources for individual classes:

USING CLIO TO FIND BOOKS AND JOURNALS

You can enter CLIO from the Barnard Library home page or from the Columbia University Libraries Home Page.

CLIO (Columbia Libraries Information Online) is the catalog for the Columbia University Libraries and includes Barnard Library's holdings.
Title search: leave off the initial article (The, An, La, etc.)
Author search: put last name, then first name
Keyword search: use and, or not between the terms, use quotes for a phrase, and use ? for truncation (to find variant endings of a word)
Limiting to books in Barnard Library: use the Pre-Select Limits or Post Limit options
Finding a book about a person or a subject: start with a Keyword search using the most distinctive words associated with the topic. Then look for useful subject headings and do a Subject search.
Finding commentaries or criticism of an author's works: do a Subject search for the name of the author and look for the subdivision Criticism and interpretation:
e.g. A subject search for "dickinson emily" finds a list of subject headings which includes
      Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886--Bibliography.
      Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886--Biography.
      Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886--Concordances.
      Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886--Criticism and interpretation.
Call numbers for literature and literary criticism start with P (How to understand call numbers: the Library of Congress Classification System). Books that are entirely about a particular author are shelved next to works by that author; for criticism on an author, find the correct call number for the author and look on the shelf near it.
Note that although the Barnard Library is in Lehman Hall, CLIO location Lehman means the Social Sciences library at Columbia; Barnard books have the location Barnard.
Library terms :Glossary of Library Terms from Libraries Unlimited.

Other Library Catalogs
Those with Columbia ID have access to the libraries of Teachers’ College and Columbia Law School, but they are not included in CLIO; use the library Catalogs list on the BC Library home page or Columbia Libraries Home Page, or the following links:

EDUCAT for Teachers’ College Library
Pegasus for Columbia Law Library
CATNYP for the New York Public Library research library and the branch libraries (LEO)
- You can click on "search all catalogs" on the top right of the CLIO screen and then search CLIO, EDUCAT and Pegasus simultaneously
- n.b. The holdings of the Health Sciences Library and Union Theological Seminary libraries are listed in CLIO and students with a CUID can use these libraries

USING INDEXES AND DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES
These indexes and databases are all on the Databases list on the Barnard Library homepage. All are available only to those with a Columbia University ID (if being accessed from off-campus).

Searching Basics:

Keyword searching in some databases requires the use of Boolean terms - AND or OR between the search terms, or quotes to search for a phrase
Truncation in Keyword searching expands a search term to find all forms of a root word, e.g. feminis* finds feminism, feminist, and feminists
Look at the Help files for a database to get more details on how to search
Click on "e-link" next to a citation to find out if an article is online, or do a title search in CLIO using the title of the journal in which the article appears.

Humanities Full Text

Citations and abstracts for articles, book reviews, etc. in archaeology, art, classics, film, folklore, journalism, linguistics, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion, world history and world literature, from 1984 to the present
To eliminate book reviews, limit Document Type to "Feature" articles
Use Keyword search rather than All-Smart Search
Use " " for phrases, *for truncation

JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive

A full text database of articles from over 1,000 scholarly journals, from the beginning of the journal but excluding the most recent 3-5 years; includes African American studies, anthropology, classical studies, education, history, language and literature, philosophy, political science, sociology and more
Use the Advanced Search for more precise searching

LION: Literature Online

A library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama, and prose, plus biographies, bibliographies, and over 145 full-text journals and other key criticism and reference sources
To find critical articles click on "Search: Criticism and Reference"

MLA: Modern Language Association Bibliography

Citations for articles, books, book chapters, dissertations etc. on literature, linguistics, language and folklore published from 1963 to the present
Use keywords, *for truncation, " " for phrases

Project Muse: Scholarly Journals Online

Full-text articles from more than 250 journals in literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others
Usually includes last several years of the journal only

ProQuest Direct

Full text articles and citations for articles from newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals
For scholarly journals, select "Interdisciplinary - Research Library" from the drop-down menu and check "Scholarly Journals" box
Use keywords, phrase assumed, *for truncation

Women's Studies International

Citations for articles on women's studies, gender studies, feminist theory and criticism, published from 1972 to the present
To change from split screen to full screen, and for other options, click on "Change Search & Display Level"
Use keywords, phrase assumed, *for truncation

FINDING INFORMATION ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

Subject Guides to the Internet on the Barnard and Columbia Libraries Homepages

The Subject Guides page available on the Barnard Library homepage includes subject guides on art, history, literature, politics, ready reference, science, theater, women's studies, etc.

The Literature Guide lists many useful resources and includes links to:

A Celebration of Women Writers - a collection of texts and information by and about women writers
Online Literary Criticism Collection - contains links to over 4,000 critical and biographical websites about authors and their works
Voice of the Shuttle - a huge collection of links to web pages for humanities research, including literature of all periods, history, linguistics, media studies, philosophy, etc.

The Subject Guides page available from Columbia Libraries Home Page includes links to African-American Studies, American Studies, Electronic Text Resources, Humanities & History, Latin American Studies, Women's Studies, and many other topics.

Evaluation Criteria for Websites - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources, and how to do it.

Writing, Planning and Researching Help Available on the Web

Barnard College English Department User's Guide to Resources for Writing at Barnard College

The Columbia Libraries page Library Research Guides includes a link to the Bedford Handbook by Diana Hacker, and information on citation styles.

A Guide for Writing Research Papers based on Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines is available online.

For help with selecting a topic, writing an outline, dealing with writer’s block, etc., consult the MIT Writing Center or the Paradigm Online Writing Assistant.

BARNARD LIBRARY REFERENCE SERVICES

The Reference Department is available to assist you with your library research and teach you how to use our print and electronic resources. Here you can find information about consultations, Instant Messenger Reference, Live Chat Reference, Library and Reference hours and more.

Consultation with a Reference Librarian: Complete a Consultation Request Form you can e-mail to the library requesting a consultation if you are having difficulty with your research.

Live Chat Reference: Monday through Friday, 1 - 5 p.m., you can chat online with a Columbia or Barnard librarian. Click on the Ask Us Now link on the Barnard Library homepage or on Columbia LibraryWeb.

Research Skills Worksheet: Click here for a Research Skills Worksheet to print out which will enable you to test and improve your library research skills.

Last Modified 9/28/05
Karen Dobrusky, Lois Coleman, Jenna Freedman and Heidi Winston, Reference Librarians
Barnard College Library