Literature 513: Contemporary Literature (Doller)
The purpose of this guide is to familiarize you with sources in the library and on the internet useful for literary and literature research in the study of your poets and writing communities.
Getting Started
What do you need that the Library can help you with?
- Resources to help you in understanding your author of study for your individual presentation.
- Resources to support your presentation on a contemporary writing community.
When researching your author from the Angel Hair Anthology, start with the biographical information in the back of the text. This will give you some distinctive characteristics and ideas and will be especially helpful if you are researching an author with a fairly common name. ALERT! You are likely to find few books on poets seem to receive less scholarly scrutiny than other writers, but the journal resources should provide more material.
Books
To search for books, you need to use a library catalog. Depending on how much time you have, you have options: either search in the CSUSM Library Catalog, retrieve from one of our Circuit partners (1-3 days turnaround), or order through Interlibrary Loan.
To find books, either do:
- KEYWORD searches using terms from your class readings and notes,
- TITLE searches for specific works by their exact title,
- AUTHOR searches for those who have been identified as authorities on a topic, or
- SUBJECT searches on your author, another person, or
topic. (Subject headings can be tricky, so feel free to
ask for help.) Some possible subject searches:
- Waldman, Anne, 1945 -- Interviews (Note last name, first name order when searching a person as a subject OR for their works)
- American Poetry
- Authors, American -- 20th Century -- Biography
- Poetry, Modern -- 20th Century -- History And Criticism
- Small Presses -- United States -- History
- Underground Press -- Publications -- United States
Reference Books (in library use)
These are works like
encyclopedias, directories, and collections of reviews
that do not circulate from the library. They may be quick
overviews or in-depth studies and are frequently useful
for short facts or overviews, birthdates, statistics and
bibliographies of sources. There are a number of useful
resources mentioned in Baker and Huling's Research
Guide for Undergraduate Students which is held at CSUSM. Some additional useful sources are:
- Twentieth Century Literary Criticism* (at REF PN 771 .G27, use the last volume's index to determine where your author is included in the set. This covers authors who died between 1900 and 1999.)
- Contemporary Literary Criticism* (at REF PN 771 .C59, use the last volume's index to determine where your author is included in the set. Authors are living or died since 1959.)
- Poetry Criticism* (at REF PN1010 .P499, just what it says, collections of critical works on poets and their work.)
- American Writers (REF PS 129 .A55) contains entries on a variety of American writers, check the index of the final supplement as there can be entries in several volumes.
*Note: Gale, the publisher for these series and others, has placed a free comprehensive index to all their sets on the web. See this page for author, title or custom search. Once you know the series title and volume number, you can check our catalog for the location. Keep in mind, CSUSM does not own all the series indexed, but we do have the major sets.
Finding Books
Do a KEYWORD search on the topic by typing the word or phrase in the search box. Since keywords can have multiple definitions and therefore, uses, once you locate a useful title, examine the SUBJECTS for precise 'labels' to identify your topic. While looking at each item, note authors who are writing on your topic and the call number for browsing the stacks. Check to see that they have bibliographies (listing of the research sources used) to substantiate the book's claims. A scholarly publisher is helpful also!
Other Options
Circuit (1-3 day delivery)
Search the collections of other San Diego area libraries -- about 3,000,000 books. Find and request books directly online; pick them up at our Library in 1-3 days.
WorldCat (5-10 day delivery)
Search the collections of libraries world-wide -- about 52,000,000 books. Find a book in this database, and fill-out an Interlibrary Loan delivery request. Book will be delivered to Library for pickup.
Journal Articles
Literature journals include some of the latest research in the field and can be very helpful in your project. They are a good source for finding very detailed information on your topic. To find articles, you need to start with a research database and preferably one that indexes scholarly sources as they are based on careful research and peer-reviewed prior to publishing. NOTE: most databases do not cover material published prior to the early 1980's, so you may need to use print resources. Some databases do not offer full text of the articles. Use the button to check our other resources for full text. Interlibrary Loan is available for documents that we don't own.
Most Useful
MLA
(AKA Bibliography of the Modern Language Association.) Includes abstracts of articles from critical literary and language journals. THE source for literature criticism and analysis.
JSTOR
Full-text. Contains complete full-text back files (EXCEPT for the latest five years) of core scholarly journals in such areas as sociology, history, economics, political science, mathematics, African-American studies, Asian studies and others. This collection offers articles published since the late 1800's.
Project MUSE
Full text. Scholarly article collection supplementing the holdings on many titles in JSTOR by offering more currently published materials.
Contemporary Authors
Biographies and bibliographies of 90,000 authors in the U.S. and around the world.
Also Useful
Academic Search Premier (via EbscoHost)
Full-text. A multi-disciplinary database offering full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals, including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed titles. Use peer-reviewed limiter to focus on more scholarly materials.
ProQuest Direct
Search all of the business and newspaper databases on Proquest together.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
Informative introduction to major people and ideas in the world of literary theory and criticism.
Archive Visit
We are fortunate to have the nearby Archive for New Poetry at UCSD featuring contemporary poetry and related documents to support your course research. This archive is part of the library's Special Collections department and operates under different rules and hours than the rest of the library.
You will need to visit the collection as special collection materials do not circulate, so Circuit will not serve you in this case. Before visiting the archive, it is highly recommended to review the information on the Mandeville Special Collections page, especially the 'Rules for Readers' page. Hours for the collection, located in the Geisel Social Sciences & Humanities Library (the spaceship) are located on this page. Your CSUSM parking pass is not accepted at the UC campuses, so be prepared for the parking meters or parking permit dispenser.
Online Resources
There are ways to search the
internet quickly and effectively. Use Advanced or Expert Search whenever possible to focus your results and eliminate sites
you can't use like those in languages you cannot read.
- Limit your searches to high quality domains: .edu (university servers), or .org (museums and associations).
- Use appropriate language to accurately describe your topic.
- Spell names or phrases accurately.
- Look for bibliographies or references to the works used for the site's contents.
- Know your topic!
- Carefully evaluate what you find for bias, conflicting, or incomplete information.
Tips to Researching Your Poet/Author--Look for:
- Interviews with the author (NPR radio would be a place to start--type in site:npr.org to limit to that source)
- Lecture transcripts (limit to the .edu domain to improve results)
- Readings may be on the web, either the poet reading their work or someone else.
- Search on the poet's name but be sure you are looking at the right person (you might add the word poet or poetry to your search terms.
- Who is their publisher? Many publishers, even the small presses, have sites with biographical or other useful information.
Style Guides
As you write your paper, you'll need to cite passages and ideas from the sources you've found. In order to cite your resources properly, you need to follow the style guide used by for this class, the MLA Handbook.
Sites with examples of in-text citations and works cited pages.
MLA Quick
Summary
of Bibliography
In-text citing and works cites examples.
Citing in Your Paper
Examples of including the citation pointers in your text.
It is highly recommended that you have your own copy of the MLA Handbook, as the library's copies are often checked out.
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MLA handbook for writers
of research papers. 6th ed. New York :
Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
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