Barnard Library Research Guide BC3998 Senior Seminar: Late Shakespeare Professor Platt Spring 2004
King Lear in the Storm Henry Brintnell Bounetheau Joshua Reynolds copy after (CA. 1842) Smithsonian American Art Museum	This guide is intended as a starting point in your research; the databases and reference tools listed here are a selective list. Always remember that you can ask for assistance at the Barnard Reference Desk at any point in your research, and you can always request a consultation.

REFERENCE RESOURCES  

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.

CRITICISM IN CLIO

You can enter CLIO from the Barnard Library home page or from the Columbia University LibraryWeb.    

• CLIO (Columbia Libraries Information Online) is the on-line 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 or not between the terms, or quotes for a phrase, and use ? for truncation (to find variant endings of a word)

• Limiting to books in Barnard Library: use the More Limits or Post Limits 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 "shakespeare" finds a list of subject headings which includes
        Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Bibliography
        Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Biography
        Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters
        Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Criticism and interpretation
• Reference books on Shakespeare can be found in PR2754-3081. (Overview of the Library of Congress Classification Outline).  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.